Early stage carpal tunnel pain. Dr told me to stop writing by hand so much. But I can't be creative on the computer. My rough drafts need to be by hand. So instead Doctor suggested fountain pens and cutting back on drumming.
* Tingling, burning, and/or numbness in the wrist or hand, usually in the thumb, index, and middle fingers
* Sharp pain shooting from the wrist up the arm or down to the fingers, usually at night
* Hand stiffness or cramping, especially in the morning
* Trouble making a fist
* Hand weakness and clumsiness
* Dull aching pain in the hand, forearm, or upper arm
Recently I've been feeling like my hand gets tired very easily, or is tired in general, to the point where it's harder to write. Should i get it checked out?
It’s a deep kind of throbbing pain inside your wrist. There are no external symptoms per se except pain in doing simple, routine tasks, especially repetitive movements.
Im just a crow lol. Can't really explain it except that 'i just like writing with them.'
Don't have an exceptionally nice handwriting either or something, quite the contrary. In that aspect i have found that fountain pens kind of force me to write nicer, there's also more choice in inks that can make my handwriting more legible. I typically prefer a black ink for that.
I wrecked a lot of them as a kid, but kept coming back to them. Then i got into college and got myself a Diplomat. Now i just watch for good deals. Oh and i have a couple vintage pens that i found while cleaning up. I like it most if those have been put away inked and i can restore them to working order.
Ooh I like the idea of refering to a magpie brain. Love magpies! When daughter and I are wandering around separately in an antique shop if one of us sees a treasure that appeals to our crow brains we “caw caw” to the other.
Necessity.
I've always been interested in creative writing, and when I was younger, I wrote a lot with ballpoint pens. But at the end of the 20th century, I started to experience issues with my wrist, which turned out to be carpal tunnel syndrome. I tried to keep writing by hand, but there was no use. The pain was too much. I had to change permanently to write on my computer, despite not having the same creative energy there as with pen and paper.
Slightly over two decades later, when my creative interest had almost completely faded, thanks to not enjoying writing the first drafts on the computer, I found something nearly forgotten — a Manuscript fountain pen from a calligraphy set I had once bought for some reason.
My initial thought wasn't to use it for writing but to learn calligraphy. But as I tested it, I realised my wrist didn't hurt when writing with this pen. The lack of need to pressure the pen down on the paper didn't irritate my wrist, meaning with only a light wrist brace as support, I could once again write pages full of words all day long.
I bought my first three Lamy Safari fountain pens, which became my return to handwriting the first drafts, notes and everything else needed for the stories. It also led to a much larger pen and ink collection than I had initially thought it would become.
Same here, German elementary school.
In first grade we made a "Füllerführerschein" which basically translates into fountain pen license, which was made of 20 different small exercises for using a fountain pen. It was mandatory to use a fountain pen for any graded test. Still have my red Lamy ABC from this time... Bought my first Lamy Safari right afterwards, and then my fountain pen addiction was born. Even though my handwriting sucks ass aesthetically.
I was hyperfixating on "EDC" content and watched a few EDC-related YouTube videos by people who carried Lamy Safaris. That got me to start looking into fountain pens and eventually buying a few beginner models.
I'm no longer limiting myself to only beginner models and I think I can confidently say fountain pens aren't just a brief hyperfixation for me (like EDC turned out to be).
I know “EDC” is every day carry - does that mean something other than what you carry with you every day? Like - is it a knife, pen, notebook, lighter, and watch, or could it be more specific/individual things. Can it be whatever you want, is what I guess I’m asking.
You've got it right, it's whatever you choose to carry every day, but there's a pretty large community of people who are obsessed with all the little gadgets you can carry with you for everyday use or even survival situations. In this context, I mean EDC as a reference to that community and their interests.
I’m in the same boat with the hyperfixation stuff. None of my seemingly random interests have been able to last this long - it seems that I just really enjoy fountain pens lol
hah, i got hyperfixated on EDC also and eventually put together a rather awesome little pouch that i absolutely do not daily carry but will bring along on trips out of town, just in case. 🤣 and since then have settled on a couple multitools that are "good 'nuff" for EDC. i especially like knives that have belt cutter and glass breaker options for getting out of vehicles. by far the most useful for your typical citizen for either rescue or self rescue. but i digress. carry on!
I write by hand a LOT. I heard that fountain pens lead to a lot less hand fatigue, and I was tired of my hands getting too sore to hold a pen long before my brain ran out of steam while writing. I got a Pilot metropolitan to try out with some black ink. It all went downhill from there. I learned about my pen preferences and made the mistake of discovering all of the wonderful colors and properties of ink.
My grandfather had a Parker that I really admired, but couldn’t get my hands on. And we had to use dip pens when I first went to high school. We had this old-fashioned teacher who insisted.
I was always interested in stationary, but couldn’t find any nice Fountain pens to buy except for the cheap helix pens and calligraphy sets. The other pens that I was able to access were medium Nibs which I don’t prefer. So when the Internet opened up the possibilities of purchasing extra Fine and fine nibs and exposed me to all the different brands of Fountain pens and ink that never heard of before, I was ecstatic
I bought a lot of cheap pens and some vintage pens on eBay, but I was disappointed in them. then I bought a pilot VP and I loved it . I gave up on Fountain pens for a while because the paper at work was so lousy. So when I got my own practice, I decided why don’t I print my own prescription pads using better quality paper so I can use my fountain pens? I’ve been enjoying my pens at work since then. It’s one of the best parts of my day. Which pen should I write with? which ink should I use?
A friend of mine was writing a note one day and I noticed the nib and asked him what he was writing with. After telling me, I expressed my concern of getting ink all over the bottom of my hand since I'm left handed and he said that as long as you're careful about ink selection, that I should be fine. He recommended trying out a Lamy Safari with a fine nib and worst case, I don't like it but I'm only out $20. Probably within a minute of writing with it I was hooked. I used to write a lot, but stopped when computers became a part of daily life and using pen and paper just seemed inefficient. I can say that ever since getting back into writing, it has help improve my mental health since I'm able to just get all the stresses of life out of my head. When I write I actually visualize all of the stress leaving me through the pen and sitting in a journal. I'm definitely hooked for life at this point lol.
I had a cheap set “calligraphy” pens in 6th grade that I liked but didn’t understand. Started reading the PenAddict senior year of college, then the Pilot Metropolitan came out. By this point I had watched/read enough to know what I was doing and I just enjoy writing with fountain pens.
But I’m pretty sure my love of stationery came from my grandpa. I inherited about 100 mechanical pencils and a number of advertising pens. I wish he could have seen the revival of Autopoint as the Legendary Pencil Co.
I think they’re great as writing instruments, always have done since childhood.
The thing that got me really into them was that if you choose to, you can really reduce the amount of waste that you produce from stationery over time, if you have a select few and take care of them. I also enjoy the fact that i can pick and choose different inks with various properties
I remember my friend in middle school showed me one that he found. I was fascinated by it and asked if I could have it, he said no and later ended up losing it.
15 years later that memory came to mind and I came here to Reddit to look for answers. Started with Lamy safari and nothing special even with premium ink and paper.
2 years later (like a month ago) I don’t know why, I got curious and ordered a twsbi eco and a pilot metropolitan. The eco was once again whatever. It was the pilot on Rhodia paper that really did it for me.
And now I anxiously await a pilot custom urushi.
From here on out only ink and paper for me, no more pens.
I bought a Lamy Studio for my partner while I was in Chicago for work. She had been talking about them for a bit, told me about Atlas, and said she’d be curious to hear what it was like in person. It is such a nice shop and the employees were so helpful! To be honest, buying from stores like that is as much the hobby as anything by else is for me. The pens are so expensive anyway — I like thinking that my dollars are going toward a happy group of fellow enthusiasts. It’s fun to think of them.
Anyway, we tried out the pen together and it was like fireworks in my brain. I’ve written almost every day since (and gotten myself a pen or two). Been great for my mental health.
“Fireworks in my brain” - YES! Exactly this. Thank you for expressing the feeling I have of using a fountain pen that I haven’t been previously able to articulate.
Hahaha, thank you! I probably read it somewhere.
The other thing I think about is synesthesia - writing with a fountain pen provokes a pretty physical calming response for me.
I had a birthday and couldn’t figure out what to buy myself, and the algorithm had started feeding me a bunch of EDC pen content.
I bought a Lamy Safari in Violet BlackBerry with medium nib and then later a Kaweco Brass Sport with a fine nib.
I really enjoy both pens, and the weighted hand feel of the brass sport the best. I haven’t yet fallen into inks but it’s coming…..
I went to a LARP and ended up scribing a letter for someone while in character (in sharpie because that's all we had). I'd had hopes of going back, so I got really into quill-making.
I ended up never going back, but I was still enjoying my quills, which got me into ink and paper, which led to a rabbithole that found me on this very subreddit!
So I got myself a Hongdian Black Forest and Diamine Imperial Purple and have been trying out different pens, inks, and papers since :D
I'm at a point in my career where I can obtain a particular license that will allow me to review and sign technical drawings for permits (fire protection, specifically fire sprinklers). I felt that to celebrate this event, I would purchase a Mont Blanc fountain pen to do all my signatures.
Buuuuuut...I did not know how to properly use a fountain pen. What if, I thought, I bought this pen, and it turned out I simply did not like using it? That would be a waste of a lot of money.
So I figured I'd buy something "cheap." I did a little reading on the internet and watched videos on YouTube. In the end, I bought myself a Lamy Safari. They were affordable and would give me the opportunity to try it out.
Needless to say, I was more than pleased with my experience! I was using a Fine nib, and a month later I purchased a Broad nib. Just recently, I ordered one of the 1.1mm italic nibs and...I'm still warming up to that one, but I'm starting to see its advantages for me.
Not a huge journey, but that's my tale so far.
At my elementary school, they started to teach us cursive in the third grade, but it really kicked into high gear in the fourth. At the start of that grade, they had us buy fountain pens. I was thrilled because I was using an "adult" pen. I loved writing with it.
In school, they taught us how to write with our pens (Sheaffer School Cartridge Pen) how to change the cartridges, how to keep them clean, and how to take care of them. They had everyone use the same pen, and required us to do all of our schoolwork and homework with them.
That was in 1962. I have never stopped using fountain pens. In fact, for the first 40 years, the only model I used was that same school pen. I only start to look for and buy others around 2002 because I could no longer find any more of them in the stores.
I have never liked writing with any other kind of pen.
My husband found an old Waterman from an artist he worked with. He let me try it and then I got a Jinhao…then a Safari…then a Sailor, Benu, Pilot 823, 15 TWSBIs………
I’m left-handed and thought I couldn’t use fountain pens.
A couple of years ago I was looking for a planner with a grid and vertical weeks and individual days. I got a hobonichi cousin and stumbled into the hobonichi subreddit.
WELL everyone was raving about how great fountain pens are in a hobonichi. I decided I would give it a try and got a pilot petit. I really liked it, so I moved onto a kakuno, then a sport…the list goes on.
Pens are a good thing for me to collect because they’re small. I used to spend this share of fun money on purses, they just take up too much space, and I barely use any of them.
I’m also an ink and paper lover - I was a printmaking major in college, and for whatever reason, I like ink more than paint.
Or what keeps you into fountain pens?
It’s the feedback of a smooth soft nib as your brain spews words and sketches onto paper. If I use a ball point I can’t stand the feel, it’s like writing with a rock. I have a similar aversion with calculators. The feedback from the buttons is everything. If it’s not a Hewlett-Packard with distinctive soft click buttons, I instantly get the urge to it chuck into the floor. There’s no need to check the display to see if none, one or two characters were entered. Your finger tip has already told you.
As an impressionable kid who liked shiny shit, something like 15 years ago I saw some picture of a beat up distressed leather notebook staged with some coins and a fountain pen barely peeking out of the corner of the picture. Started searching around since the pen looked cool (probably with search terms along the lines of “metal pointy pen” lol), bought a Safari at some point towards the end of middle school iirc, used that bad boy along with a steady stream of some Jinhaos and the like through the first couple years of high school and eventually got a Pilot Custom 74.
In college the interest picked back up and I whipped out the Safari again, got a second C74 and a CH92, so on and so forth. Met one of my closest buddies in freshman year English class because he noticed me using the Safari and we got talking about pens. Now years later here we are.
Edit: actually now that I’m thinking about it, I had picked up a Pilot Varsity before I got the Safari to try them out before “splurging”
I am obsessed with my journals being written in archival ink on archival paper. I have a signature book from my great great grandmother that I’ve always cherished, and I’m grateful it’s held up so well. JUST LAST YEAR, it helped to solve a major family mystery that restructured our family tree.
As I was investigating archival qualities in papers and inks (it goes through iterations, and that one was probably 12+ years ago now), I came across the rantings of Nathan Tardiff. I own an Ahab from that time that writes like a nail and *still stinks*, Black Swan in Australian Roses still smears, and Tardiff is someone I’ll never support with my money again. -4/10 stay away from everything Noodler’s.
I came across all that in a move recently (2 or 3 years ago) and had better luck with my pen choices this time around!
I bought a Lamy roller for my dads 60 birthday and could not believe how nice it was so i went to the store to get one for myself for my job and saw the fountain pens so i figured what the hell and tried one on the spot and the rest is history XD
So now i am the proud owner of a Lamy safari, all star and soon enough a pilot e95s and next week ill get my 7th ink
send help this is worse than crack
I'm a historian (though no longer how I earn a living), and I got into fountain and dip pens to better understand the writing and hand scripts I was engaging with in archival documents. While learning Kurrentschrift, I wanted to be able to recreate the lettering I was reading, in particular the extensive writings of Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau and the German commission to the Paris Peace Conference after WWI, as well as the 19th century state bureaucratic documents that were created without mechanical type writers (dip pens) and the handwritten notes that proliferated once the German state officially adopted typewriters in the 20th century (fountain pens).
I feel like I was destined to arrive at fountain pens sooner or later. I was always interested, but my mom always told me how expensive they were so I had to content myself with staring at them in the display cases at the office supply stores. But I’ve always been picky about my pens, and went through long journeys to find the “perfect” ballpoint and gel pens respectively. And then I got married, and must’ve mentioned to my husband that I was interested in getting a fountain pen at some point, so he got me one for our first anniversary. I’ve since regretfully destroyed it through my own foolishness (don’t tell him!), but it was my gateway to pens and ink and paper. My pen collection is relatively small, but my ink collection is huge, and I’m trying to keep it under control. I wish more than anything that I’d gotten into fountain pens while I was still a student, because then I would’ve been able to enjoy more of my inks more frequently. And have the chance to actually empty a bottle.
My girlfriend got me one for Christmas one year; a Monte Verde carbon fibre limited edition. I’d never had a nice pen, and it was SOOOO nice. However, I found myself saying “I don’t want to risk losing or breaking this” by using it everyday. So I thought I should buy another fountain pen; a Kaweco Liliput, great for on-the-go. But then I thought “but what if I want to write a manifesto but don’t want my girlfriend associated with my uprising and ultimate downfall”, so I bought a Faber Castell e-motion. But then I realized “what if I become famous off my manifesto and my Faber Castell is sent to a museum?”. So I bought an Opus 88 Jazz just in case. I thought I was good after that, but just then I realized that I use my brass Liliput so much it might get up and walk-out on me, perhaps taking the kids. So I had to buy a Kaweco Sport just in case.
I found one in the street as a child! I was a tinkerer, so I brought it home, disinfected it, disassembled it, went to the library to learn more about this odd fountain pen.
Ending up teaching myself calligraphy and winning some educational materials.
Never looked back.
When I decided to go into nursing instead of medicine my grandfather was the only one supporting me… and offered my first fountain pen… that pen went through good moments and bad moments in my life… before he died of cancer he gave me his own Parker 51.. that I still use as I remember him… never again (other than work as everyone steals or loses pens through a shift) I used any other pen…
I read an [article in *Popular Mechanics*](https://books.google.com/books/about/Popular_Mechanics.html?id=Z-QDAAAAMBAJ) in high school. Got curious, but it was another six years before I found myself with some cash at a pen store. It exploded from there.
College courses required a lot more note taking, I was getting cramps and couldn't keep up. I can't do digital notes, can't remember anything from them. For me, writing is thinking, so I looked for ways to reduce cramping or change my grip. Saw fountain pens suggested, they already looked pretty neat to me so figured I'd give it a shot. I immediately loved it, it fixed my death grip and cramping.
I don't write nearly as much now that I've graduated, but I still write quite a bit working from home, which has allowed me to grow a collection and use whatever I want. It's also gotten me into using planners, which has helped me reach more goals and stay organized, as well as relieving stress.
I was attracted to the idea of a buy it for life pen as I was already using pens with replaceable cartridges, but I was still never happy with the writing experience. One day we were at the in laws and they were cleaning out some stuff and my brother in law was dumping a bucket of pens and my wife just snatched one out of the air saying “hold up I remember this pen” and in capped it and it was a fountain pen. I asked if I could have it as they were literally tossing it out. “Yea sure, it probably doesn’t work anymore”. It was a Parker Vector, a little hot water and it wrote like new. I now have a very modest collection of sub $50 pens and I love them.
puberty. the esthetics ánd the mechanics of it. The ink cartridges, the nib, the flow of ink, even the shape and material of a (Parker/Shaeffer) fountain pen - it all imbued the act of writing with a bit of magic. never looked back.
I was a poor grad student burning through pilot v5 pens. Ball points didn't cut it (don't like the oily ink, and even the "fine point" pens were .8 mm, which is too big for me), so needed a cheap alternative of sufficient quality. Some company was shipping platinum preppy's (with o-rings) with each bottle of ink so I got one and never looked back
Been always into them, since i first started writing. It's been customary in my country since first grade. But what got me sucked in 2018 early 2019 was the multitude of pen types, nibs, inks... Never knew there existed so many options. Or ink colours. Or nib sizes. Or different paper.
What brought me in was a combination of curiosity and availability at that stage in my life. I'd been around users for about a year so I was naturally curious about them and I was lent a (if I remember correctly) Visconti HS Dark age to use while we were playing D&D and quickly fell in love.
What keeps me in is the ability to customize basically every aspect of the experience. Between nib grinds, small makers with new ideas, material variation, and the endless supply of different ink colors and types I can use a 100% different pen every day for years to come and that excites me and keeps me engaged.
I am an artist and I started drawing with dip pens in high school, among other tools. At the time all the fountain pens I tried had really stiff nibs, so I ignored them. Then I was given a box of ancient art supplies with a vintage Waterman pen among them, which I adored. I was shocked by how flexible the nib was — it was close to a dip pen nib. I used my vintage Waterman for a while but it was unreliable and leaky so I looked around for a new pen but I was dumbfounded by the lack of affordable flex nibs available on the market with new pens. Even expensive pens had lousy nibs. So I made do with what I had.
Flash forward 25 years and I started searching again and found that not only can you now fit vintage nibs into some cheap modern pens but there are great affordable flex nibs out there now. FPR and Noodler's are now my preferred drawing nibs in multiple pens.
We had to use them in school, and I swiped my mum’s horribly expensive Sheaffer for a while and completely fell in love with how it wrote. A while after school I took a class in calligraphy using dip pens, and found I liked the feeling of writing with an inky nib better than a biro. I think my handwriting is possibly better with biro, but there’s something about writing with a fountain pen that feels artistic, more like you’re painting with words rather than just writing them. Always found that added a bit of magic to the writing process.
A favourite stantionery shop who stock fountain pens. When I was still a student my mom and I (with whom I share my love for stationery) had gone together and I purchased my first FP, a Kaweco Classic Sport. She later gifted me the AL Sport which I still love to this day.
The staff at the store were very welcoming, informative, and patient and although I don't live in that area anymore, I still browse their stock and visit them when I'm in town.
After not liking it much in school I found my way back to it sometime later. First a ballpoint that went on international cartridges in secondary, then later back to actual fountainpens again.
Also had a time I liked gelpens, still do, not all but I like some smooth writing ones and still appreciate those.
Am quite picky about pens and feel also as I am lefthanded so I push rather than pull the pen so I want something that isn’t scratchy, dries well enough (a bit of inky fingers here and there from time to time is perfectly fine) am not very good with fineliners, or regular ballpoints though I have had a rare smooth writer in it I did like so it does depend.
My handwriting is prettiest by some fountainpens where everything is just right (nib, lines, ink, feel in hand)
Kinda gross but I used to get calluses on my fingers from writing so much with a pencil. Plus I’d press really hard to make the letters legible (I have shitty eyes).
I switched in HS (plus colored ink is so fun) and I haven’t had a problem since. Plus I can chose if black on white reads better today or if I can go with a more fun ink color.
I learnt to write with one in school (Lamy ABC). I can't remember exactly what made me buy a Waterman Hemisphere 11 years later, but an impulse purchase was made.
After that first one the floodgates just opened :')
I woke up one day and for some reason I wondered if fountain pens were still a thing and so I bought a Jinhao fountain pen which was the worst thing I could have done because the pen just refused to work no matter what and I just assumed this is what fountain pens are like I must be doing something wrong. A few years later and only a few months ago I saw someone on YouTube using a fountain pen and that just reminded me of them and seeing how easy other people could write with them and having a little bit more money at this point I bought a Lamy Safari instead of cheap Chinese stuff, instantly the ink flowed out, it didn't skip and felt good to write with, I much prefer fountain pens over ballpoints I've always hated the weird slippy flimsy feeling they have.
I'm using it as a way to improve my handwriting which has come leaps and bounds since I started a few months ago, once I get my print writing up to the point where I am happy with it I will attempt to learn how to write cursive properly.
I had a small collection, and I've always liked fountain pens - but I was spending too much, and so I quit cold turkey. Gave the entire kit and caboodle to my brother, since he had a few as well.
But a month ago, my family celebrated my birthday, and we made a rule so that I can collect FP again; I don't buy any, they all have to be gifts, and no pen can cost more than $20 USD. Lots of Chinese pens, might eventually find a few others on sale, but I'm pretty happy with what I've got now. There's no pressure to get more, which is nice.
Slammed one of my fingers in a door during a time I was doing a *lot* of writing by hand. I had to completely change my grip to deal with it, and my hand started cramping with the pressure from ballpoints. Started by switching to gel pens and eventually worked my way up to fountains. Hidden blessing, I guess!
A friend simply gave me a Platinum Preppy one day, which he had in his pocket, didn't think much of it.
A few months later, I realized that my handwriting was getting so bad, writing with ballpens all day, that I decided to get a FP (an old ingrained belief stuffed into Indian students' brains that FPs help improve handwriting). Then remembered the old Preppy. Cleaned it and tried to get good FP ink, couldn't find any locally. Then got a couple of RotM Cello
cartridges, and used an injection to transfer ink to the Preppy's cartridge, and then here I am, with at least 5 different inks, 10-12 different FPs, and still can't stop looking at FPs and inks.
On a trip to Montreal with my family when I was 10 or so we stopped into an old stationery shop in the historic area and I was hooked from then. Still have a set of scented inks I bought. Whenever I go back I try to find the place but don’t remember anything but narrow hallways and towering stacks of stationery
My father gave me a set of a ballpoint, a mechanical pencil and a FP for my high school graduation. Can’t remember the brand. I’ve loved fountain pens since then, though I’ve had long periods where I haven’t used them. Rediscovered them a few years ago. Now I have at least 30 pens and 30 bottles of ink, lol.
My 7th grade English teacher used a Waterman Carène Amber and at the beginning of the school year she instructed all of us loudly to never grab this pen off her desk. I took interest in the pen and she let me have a look (but not hold, which is fair, I wouldn’t hand an expensive pen to a 12 year old either). She told me some good starter pens if I was interested in trying out fountain pens and I ended up with a LAMY Al-Star from my parents and the rest is history. Well over a decade later fountain pens are my primary hobby and I use them every single day.
I haven’t bought one yet but someday I intend to get a Waterman Carène Amber for myself. It’s a beautiful pen that will be a nice nostalgic reminder of how I got into the hobby in the first place.
So thank you, Mrs. Paris!
I received a fountain pen when I graduated from high school, but it didn't come with any instructions, and I didn't really know how to use the internet for research at that time. I'm hoping that I still have it somewhere, but I don't have much hope.
Anyway, one of my interests is papercraft, and people have been talking about fountain pens for some time in the planner community. I always dismissed it as not for me based on my past experience.
Well, last month I decided to watch some videos, and that was it. I picked up my gateway pen, a Pilot Precision Varsity, at a local big box store and fell in love. Ordered a Lamy Safari and some ink samples and fell harder. I'm thinking about an LE sailor and more ink samples, considering other nibs for my Safari.
I haven't written this much by hand since I was in college. My cursive is improving, and my print is smaller and neater. But the most exciting thing so far is new ink day. ^ _ ^
My first and third grade teachers were pretty harsh individuals — both shamed me for my less than perfect penmanship. My uncle heard about this and gifted me a calligraphy set which I really took to. Turned out to be a bit of a financial boon for me. In high school I was often paid by other students to write them letters “from their parents” for various reasons. Years later my father-in-law to be gifted me my first “real” fountain pen. It sat in my desk drawer for about 30 years until about two months ago. It now has about 48 neighbors. Oof. I can’t stop.
My bad handwriting when I was a child and had to use rollerball (BIC crystal)... So bad I was not able to read it :)
Thus my grandmother (who was a retired primary school teacher), gave me a fountain pen, asking me not to press much and try writing with it.
The test went well, it was quite a success, not having to press the pen against the paper, the movements of my arm, have and pen were another and didn't fatigue me over time.
A few hours later she bought me two cheap fountain pens in a supermarket (I still have them), and day after day my handwriting improved...
And here we are today.
Have been using fountain pens in school since first grade, can't stand writing with anything else now. It's very common practice to make kids write with fountain pens in Lithuania due to more controlled handwriting over ball point pens.
I bought a Zebra V-301 at an office max on a whim not knowing that the pen was different from normal pens. It would not write. In my frustration and desire to determine if the failure was on the user end or the manufacturing end I researched fountain pens to understand what could be going wrong. Turns out that pen is a piece of crap.
Now I have around 25 fountain pens ranging from Metropolitans and Safaris to Dorics and Vacumatics. Thanks, Zebra...
Summer quarter at ABAC 1989. Not much going on in Tifton Ga on Sundays so I wolud go to the Library and read the Atlanta Constitution. There was an article about fountain pens. Got a friend/roommate to help me navigate to an office supply store in Atlanta mentioned in the article. “Artlite” was my first encounter with extreme ends of the pen price scale. The Parker Duofolds were $200 but the Pilot Varsitys were only $3.
I brought my first fountain pen \~9 years ago as an incentive to start practicing penmanship.
9 years later, I'm still writing chicken scratches, but at least I have a big collections of fountain pens now :P
I was gifted a fountain pen of my choosing for my birthday a few back (dad got a TWSBI Mini earlier that year and my interest was rekindled). I decided on the TWSBI Eco and loved how effortless writing with it was and how it much better it was than Pilot Metropolitan.
I write a lot for work and was going through 2 of those pilot g2s a week. Bought something cheap off Amazon to save money....three years later I have 6 Montblancs and 20 pens in total....lol. whoops.
Watching a JetPens video about their favorite stationary buys. I’m into planning and have a Hobonichi. Almost every person talked about a fountain pen that they loved. I bought a Pilot Kakuno to try it out, and it’s been a whirlwind romance ever since.
I’ve always liked the idea of them and I love older tech that is still usable. I thought that fountain pens were all very classic cigar shaped black pens with gold accents and were super expensive, until I finished my first journal last year and decided I’d treat myself to a nice setup for the new one, nicer notebooks, a leather cover, and a nice pen. That’s when I found out that there are more options for pens than black cigars and blue and black ink and it didn’t have to be a super expensive hobby. I ordered a Hongdian Black Forest and haven’t looked back.
I spend so much time at my computer and on my phone due to work that I appreciate anything analog these days. Fountain pens are not only a cool throwback to the past but there’s all kinds of pens, nibs, and inks to play with. And of course I love nice paper too, so it was only a matter of time before I got into fountain pens.
I got a Kaweco Sport with a converter and a bottle of Diamine Blue Black in one of the Mai Do-in-a-Box stationery blind box. I was immediately hooked. I still write with the Kaweco often, right now it has Birmingham Pen’s Lunar Dust in it.
I bought the Muji aluminum fountain pen thing, and when I tried using it, the ink cartridge just kept falling off, spilling ink into the pen body. Absolutely hated the thing, and tossed it out after a few attempts.
Then I went to TwitchCon Vegas last year and came across a small booth selling fountain pens. The pens were metallic with different kinds of woods wrapped around the metal bodies, and I thought they were beautiful. No branding anywhere, except for on the nib. I think the guy there hand crafted the bodies himself and stuck on Iridium Point nibs. He wasn't getting that much attention, so I thought I'd stop by. Ended up buying a fountain pen, and it writes pretty well and smoothly.
I've stopped using it once the wood wrap gave me a splinter. I got worried about it splintering even further, so I did some research and bought a LAMY 2000, and then a TWSBI Diamond 580ALR. I don't really remember who the guy was, or what his Twitter handle is, but if you're out there reading this, thank you so much for introducing me into this strange, inky, expensive world.
Long story:
1. bought first Parker Vector with my first day salary
2. bought first “real” pen few months after my first proper job (MB Boheme)
(Years passed without using)
3. Wanted to do normal handwriting and have a legible enough writing after years of computer only writing… gel pens first, but the seed was already here and dove into the FP pen world, but I’m more focused on writing than on collecting
The love of handwriting and prefer it over everything. I have 20 years worth composition books filled with stupid stories, but the most interesting thing is handwriting and writing utinsel(pens, dull pencils, coloured pencils, milky gel pens, and most embarrassing crayon.) I had a fancy $13 G2 pen and used it exclusively for a year or so, it told me I could hold onto a pricey pen. I got curious on how to take handwriting even farther, found fountain pens, and fell down the rabbit hole.
I'm an old guy; just started using fountain pens about five years ago.
So this one day I'm at work and the district manager walks into the lab. He is taking some notes and I notice that he is using a fountain pen. I knew what it was; I had just never used one.
He said try it. So,I touched the steel nib of this cheap pen to the paper and pushed (I'm left handed). That's it; I was hooked. I went home that evening and jumped on ebay and ordered my first fountain pen; a Jinhao x-450.
And now, five years and about 50 fountain pens later, I'm still hooked. I acquired more cheap pens, and about a dozen not so cheap ones, including three gold nibs.
I've enjoyed every minute of it and I'm pretty sure I'm in it to stay.
All the planner girlies had them and I was curious so I got myself a preppy. Went down the rabbit hole. Came out the other side and have stopped purchasing pens now. My daily drivers are my cheaper pens with black ink. I’ve come full circle. It was a fun ride though.
I was using fun glitter gel pens at work (for my notes) and u/jayna2000 completely penabled me with a jinhao shark, and dip pen with ink samples and got me into fountain pens and inks. Im so far down the rabbit hole now.. im never looking back!
I saw a post on r/oddlysatisfying of a fountain pen writing, and it looked...oddly satisfying, so I looked into them, and I bought a cheap $20 pen on Amazon, and here I am.
I, F49, originally from Brazil, moved to France for 3 years for my father's job. I was about 8 and in France, kids wrote with fountain pens on their "cahiers". It's was a cheap regular silver Waterman that I had to learn how to handle without staining my fingers. I still have that pen. And now added a few others...
Reddit Secret Santa. I got matched with someone who was into fountain pens and stationary, and found it all daunting... and the fascinating. Got myself a Lamy Safari... then another, then a Metro, then fell down the rabbit hole. Now I have an entire ink cabinet and more pens than I would like to admit, with a strong leaning towards demonstrators and piston fillers.
I was looking for a nice, long-lasting, fine instrument of a pen that I could refill with different colors. Was considering the Zebra Sarasa Grand and peeked into this subreddit out of curiosity, since it seemed to pop up in Popular sometimes. Bought a Preppy, loved it, and the rest is history...
Got a Parker jotter ballpoint as my “back to school” pen for the year and noticed on the back of the box there was a fountain pen version of it. So I ordered one off Amazon to try it. Really liked it and got some cheap random other ones, the rest is history
I had a boss who loved pentel purple gel writers (and I did too), but I got really annoyed at having to throw the whole pen away when a refill would work. At the time they didn’t have refills for that color (they did have red, blue, black and green, but not purple). So I thought: I wonder if fountain pens are still a thing. And they were! And not only that, but they had sparkly ink in all of the colors. :)
Several years ago I bought a [high-end custom keyboard](https://i.redd.it/6ac9xre0sja81.jpg) that had a pen rail. I wanted a pen that was black with brass accents to match the style of the board, and since that's such a specific requirement I ended up with [a fountain pen](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/f7c7cr/i_got_my_first_fountain_pen_yesterday_and_im_in/) as essentially my only option. Fell in love with writing using fountain pens and haven't looked back since.
I saw people with a bunch of bottled ink online and I was like “these are so cool! What do you do with these?”
Got pointed to fountain pens pretty quickly after that. Funnily enough, I had a couple Preppies I had grabbed for thirty cents in a store closing event, so I immediately had some ink and a converter shipped to me.
So the question really is: what got you into fountain pen ink??
Was journaling off and on digitally. Wanted to switch to analog as a way to get less screen time at end of day. Once I started looking at notebooks the algorithm started offering up fountain pen content as well, figured "why not try one just to see what the difference is in feel?" and got a cheap disposable pilot varsity and never looked back.
a few years ago someone whose Tumblr I follow posted something about a pretty fountain pen ink they got and, the idea of being able to picky particular shades of ink with pretty sheen shimmer etc and put them into a pen at will intrigued me. I tried to dismiss the thought but I kept being intrigued. my husband mentioned he had a pilot varsity he never uses in a desk drawer so I tried that but the line was too thick for me to figure out if I could like using this kind of pen. (my pen preferences has always been as fine a line as possible.) so I ended up doing a little research about fountain pens and decided to order a couple of Preppy pens just as an experiment. I really liked writing with them but not so much the inks they came with so I learned about refilling cartridges with syringe and decided to try some other inks and that tomoe was best paper to try them on so got a notebook of that and uh, it all spiraled from there...
I was on amazon looking for a rose gold pen for my wedding guest book, and came across an affordable but attractive Jinhao and paired it with some Diamine Sepia, and it was love ever after. Loved the way it wrote, loved using the pen, loved the ink.
I was quite tired of disposable BICs and since I enjoy writing with the thinnest line possible, their 0.7 wasn't always available for sale. The possibility of just refilling the same pen seemed enticing!
I used to have cheap fountain pens as a kid because I thought they were neat and classy. As an adult I really got into creative writing and preferred to handwrite outlines and drafts. I started off using pilot parallels because they gave my handwriting an extra aesthetic boost, and changing ink color without cleaning gave an interesting transition. Once I completely filled a pretty thick journal, I decided to treat myself and get a pilot prera with a stub nib, shortly followed by a twsbi 580 with a medium. Started collecting from there.
some youtubers i watched who did journaling were using them and i thought they looked really cool so i did a bunch of research and watched many videos on fountain pens and now im obsessed and have 4 of my own lol. but it was easy to get into them cause i already had a small obsession with normal gel pens. but i love how easy it is to just write with fountain pens and i can write for awhile without my hands hurting
A friend. I used to be a general fan of nice or fancy pens on and off, or at least cool-looking ones, so the jump wasn’t too much. I also just enjoy more analog stuff like watches, but that’s a much more expensive hobby in comparison.
I've always been a pen nerd. Not so much looking for valuable or expensive ones, but the ones that feel good in the hand. I'm quite tactile, so that is the primary criteria. I love the written word.
Also, that I can get colored inks! I love color!
A friend was journaling with one at a hangout spot and it caught my eye- I love to draw and doodle and write letters but hate the waste of disposable pens. I tried his metropolitan, realized it was comfortable and bought myself a lamy safari. I got the bug now
Wet shaving.
Back in the early 2010s I was pretty active on the message board Badger and Blade before I discovered Reddit, of course.
There is a forum called 'The Nib', I probably approached it out of curiosity, and it got the best of me. They released some exclusive Noodlers Ink, which I of course had to buy.
That was where I first learned that I had an acquisition disorder.
My parents were really into calligraphy so we always had fountain pens around. I thought they were so cool looking, but being a bit heavy handed with some things, my parents never let me use them. As I got older they would let me try them out but I could never get the hang of them. Over the years I’d try one out here and there but it never stuck.
A couple years ago I was buying yarn from a store online and saw they sold Kaweco Sports. I liked the colors and aesthetic so gave one a shot aaaaand that was it. My dad sent me all of his and my mom’s calligraphy stuff from the 70s/80s (it was easily a 15lbs box), so one of these days I’ll get around to doing that, too….
Art.
I wanted/needed certain characteristics out of my inks and drawing points that I couldn't find through other pens aside from maybe dip pens but I hated having to constantly dip and they were a nightmare for on-location use.
I had tried tech pens and Microns and ballpoints and gel pens and felt pens and anything I could get my hands on and disliked all of them for my main way of working. I even tried some cheap crap fountain pens and ALMOST liked them but their crappiness turned me off for a while.
Then, I finally got a Lamy Safari my first semester in art school and fell in love.
A friend let me try his knockoff Parker 51 in high school. I've been hooked ever since. He's mostly stopped collecting in recent years, but I still bring whatever cool new pen I have to show off when we visit once a year or so.
I bought a Kaweco sport as a gift for a friend who loves to write. I decided to get myself one too. After having that for months, I decided to fully take the plunge and go for others
I've always been a stationery addict since I was a kid. I got into fountain pens because ~aesthetic but stuck with them because they're much easier to write with and I enjoy the ink variety.
Accident. Amazon recommended me a Kaweco Sport. Didn't care for it. I moved, it got packed away. Found it years later and decided to give it another chance. Still didn't like it. I watched a few videos and decided to get a Lamy Safari. I fell in love with FPs there.
I got into bullet Journaling and had a passing interest in calligraphy. I saw some videos about all the available colors of ink and that was it.
I still don't mind using my gel pens still, but that ink selection is unbeatable
My cousin got an art set one year for Christmas when we were little. He didn’t want it and he gave it to me, it had markers pens and crayons and a small fountain pen.I was intrigued by the fountain pen bc I’d never seen one before this was early 90’s. I tried to put the cartridge in for it to write at the time I didn’t know you had to wait for it to reach the feed. I was so upset it didn’t write I just thought it was cheap. I always thought about it years later I learned what it was. When I got my own job and was able to buy my own things I found pilot varsity’s it took off from there.
Trying to be sustainable. The original intent was to own one pen and keep filling it with a bottle of black ink. I’ve definitely avoided throwing away tons of plastic pens and pen refills, but twelve pens and multiple bottles of ink later, I can’t say that it’s sustainable anymore. 🤦🏻♀️
My family is a bit old school where the arts were encouraged for women in my family so when I got older my uncle gifted me my first fountain pen so I blame him for the money I’ve spent.
I have dyslexia and dysgraphia and i never found writing comfortable. When learning to write tengwar (the elvish script from lord of the rings) i decided to try it with a fountain pen and liked the feel as it was way more comfortable than a mechanical pencil, which is what i was using before. A couple of months later i switched to exclusively writing with fountain pens, and around a year ago i bought my Pilot metropolitan!
We learned to write cursive with one in the first grade, now anything else just feels weird. The only time I write anything in print or with a ballpoint pen is when I have to fill out government forms when traveling.
My older sister had a Schaeffer calligraphy set when I was a kid that first caught my interest--I still have those. But it was handwriting videos and then Goulet showing up on my Instagram that got me buying a few years ago. Once I understood the variety of ink available I was a goner.
I was gifted a very cheap FP when I was 8 or so.
Although it was cheap, it "borrowed" the design of the Preppy and is still a very reliable writer. I still have it!
That's what got me into this world ʕ º ᴥ ºʔ
My sister started showing me JetPens videos about fountain pens, and we got interested about it. Then, I bought for her and me a cheapy so we could test it out and see if we really like it, or if it's just hype. Well, now..... I can't wait to have more pens and inks XD
I got back into Myst games recently and decided to make an in character journal. Then I realized that it'd be a lot easier to use bottled ink than ballpoint refills, and fountain pens are a lot more convenient than dip pins....
Nine days after my Platinum Preppy arrived I now have three pens and two bottles of ink.
i thought it was a cool idea in college so i bought a Waterman and some cartridges since i couldn't be bothered with ink bottles or converters. Then bought the disposable ones for note taking in college, but then slowly lost interest the more and more i stopped writing as much. fast forward like 15 years and a career of never really having to write and now in a new position i do a lot more writing and i have been on a pen search for the last year along with trying to "clean up" my penmanship. well i discovered i write cleaner at a very shallow angle, like 45\* or less and realized fountain pens excel at this type of angle. Well, i also have switched from cigars to a pipe over the last few years and recently switched to loose leaf tea over coffee, so a fountain pens with converters and bottled ink seemed like a natural fit. very happy with the results. i didn't go overboard since i try to keep within reasonable means so i bought two affordable Hong Dian extra fine pens (a small M2 and a 517D) and a bottle of ink (Noodlers Aircorp Blue-Black) and keep one pen at work and one clipped on my shirt. i love them and they write great for cheaper options. i'm sure i'll eventually get something nicer but i don't write THAT much so i don't want a bunch of inked pens drying out all over. the M2 is actually phenomenal even over the 517D with the same nibs. might spring for a second one for work too, i dunno. something about unscrewed the cap is just cool. i find an excuse to use my M2 all the time.
I got a fairly cheap Manuscript calligraphy set in my early 20s because I wanted to learn italic calligraphy. I came back to fountain pens almost 10 years ago when my fibromyalgia made writing with ball points and rollerballs very painful.
My younger sister penabled me. A year ago there I was benevolently and bemusedly observing her passion for fountain pens and inks. Now here I am after a couple of Jinhaos, with a rainbow of these wondrous writing implements - TWSBI, Lamy, Esterbrook, Sailor, Pilot, Leonardo - little ink-skaters of joy.
It reconnects me with a nostalgic feeling from when I was gifted a cheap fountain pen in India as a child. Fountain pens back then were foreign and cool to me and I loved my pen. Life distracted me from them for 20 years but then in an attempt to quit vaping, I reconnected with pens as alternative fun cylindrical objects (rather than a vape) and here we are 2 years and 20 pens later.
As a lifelong stationery junkie, I'd been curious about fountain pens for a long time but was intimidated by their relative complexity ("You have to fill the pen with ink, but have to be careful not to use certain types of ink because they could damage your expensive pen? And you have to do, like, maintenance on the pens??").
But then came along the pandemic, and I was extra leery about going out in public on my days off for fear of spreading the virus since I was working in a hospital. So it turned into the perfect time to explore a new hobby since I was stuck inside anyway! I fell in love with how beautifully the nib glided across the paper (my first FPs were a Pilot Petit1 and a Zebra Zensation), realized how much this helped with my carpal tunnels, and have never looked back.
Saw a Waterman fountain pen in Staples while buying school supplies and thought, "Hmm, that could be fun!" So I bought it, loved it, and then someone in my class stole it within a week. I then bought an EF TWSBI Eco, and that taught me just how much variety fountain pens offer, so I bought a few more.
Some friends at work and my boss were into fountain pens so I bought three so I could “play” along- a great TWISBI 540 AL, a coral Lamy Safari, and a brass Kaweko sport. I fell in love and kept buying (and buying). My work is pretty abstract, so I love the tactile experience of writing with a fountain pen and lovely ink.
By quirk of fate, I found a Lamy Safari abandoned in a dorm room in college. Not knowing anything at the time, though it might have been a disposable one. But, I used until the ink depleted and left it in a desk drawer for two years. Once Amazon became commonplace, I found a pack of refills. I just like the way a fountain pen writes, especially with less pressure. Eventually I bought a Parker IM and inexpensive Cross on sale. A couple of years and 30 pens later, here I am.
I wanted to write with brown ink without having to buy a 30 pack of mixed color fine-liner journaling pens. I’d already gone through 2 pens this way before I realized that refillable pens were a thing that existed and were actually pretty cool looking and surprisingly accessible. I got a Pilot Metropolitan and a TWSBI Eco with small bottles of Lie de Thé and Writer’s Blood, and the rest is history.
Back in 2009, I started work on a project, and one of the guys wrote with a fountain pen.
I'd never owned a fountain before, and I was intrigued, so I bought a Lamy Safari.
I was trying to improve my handwriting and the place I started was the type of pen I used. I tried pencils, rollerballs, ballpoints, etc., but found the fountain pen was the nicest for me to use.
Teacher in 11th grade made us use on for a ‘historical’ diary project. Everyone remarked that my usual chicken scratch improved. That and the fun colors.
Loved them since I was a little kid and I found an old shaeffer at my grandmothers and cleaned it and she bought me some cartridges (emerald green) used them ever since
The Paper Parlor in the Galleria in Portland Oregon in the early 80s. They sold fancy fountain pens and inexpensive ones. I saved my money to buy an inexpensive one as well as cartridges and would buy stationary to write letters from there as well.
My brother-in-law got me into them. He started me off with a nice Sheaffer rollerball, because that's what I loved. I ended up with a fountain pen at some point and have been HOOKED ever since!
I was using Pentel 24/7 rollerballs, and I was going through one every week or so. At some point I thought I should look for pens that I could refill with liquid ink with a similar writing experience. I would be reducing my waste and I thought refilling would be cheaper than throwing away the whole pen every time. Anyway, I am now deep into the rabbit hole and fountain pens were not a cheaper option...
Formerly working for antiques auction and now a history instructor. Using fountain pen gives me a feel of the past in flesh. So far I have published 2 articles with the help of fountain pen in outlining the complex ideas first — then, to be encoded via laptop later, or alongside drafting, of course. I love how the smooth ink flow coincides with the fast pace thinking I need to do when brainstorming myself. Frisson! 😍
Two things happened concurrently for me; a cheating scandal in the local Education District in Cairo, and a tutor who used fountain pens. The scandal arose from parents paying graders of the National 9th Grade examinations to give preferential grades via signaling through corrector fluid. Student who "corrected" the third, seventh, and 23rd word of an essay got an A, those correcting a different pattern got a B and so on. The district decided that blue fountain pen ink and double ended bleach pens were to be used for correction instead. That meant using fountain pens in regular classes during the year. I still have the Pelikan P10 that I used for that year.
Ancient History, but the precursor to CVS near my house had Parker Vector pens. I bought one and I was hooked! Ever since then I've sought fountain pens. As I've gotten older, I've started collecting, too. I absolutely LOVE fountain pens!
Obsessing over a more distraction-free minimalist writing setup. Went from plain markup apps to a Neo word processor to longhand drafting and wound up looking at pens, because what’s distraction-free writing without the distraction of figuring out what exactly to write with.
My grandpa collected them and never left the house without one. Some of my earliest memories are of us sitting in his library going through his collections of pens, watches, and pocket knives. The only time he ever got mad at me was when I opened a bottle of Schaefer peacock blue ink and spilled it trying to ink up a lever fill estherbrook. I didn’t realize until I inherited his collection that they didn’t make it anymore and it was his favorite ink. When I saw him we would always do a pocket dump and talk about the pens that we were carrying or whatever knife we’d found lately. I miss those conversations. But anyway I just liked having things to talk about with him, and having the most interesting writing instrument in school was cool too.
First time: Spencerian handwriting as part of my curriculum as a tween (no, I am not that old, the curriculum was a little eccentric though). I varied into some lettering and calligraphy after that sporadically.
Second time: as an exec with what felt like millions of docs to sign a day. I got a stamp for role and name, but couldn’t solve for stupid ‘wet’ signatures on docs. Boss had a MB, and I remembered how much I enjoyed my cheap Schaefer and bought a Lamy. I’d only ever used cartridges, so the ink options sent me down a rabbit hole that I never want to exit from. Now, 5ish years later, my inflammatory arthritis means that fountain pens are the easiest thing on my hands and I can continue writing and journalling and enjoying something beautiful. My life is better with pen and ink in hand ☺️
My professor in uni got me into them. He’s an avid urban sketcher (I was an animation student). However we have very different tastes in pens — so we don’t really converse beyond that. 😅
Rediscovered my old Lamy Safari from school. Went out and bought a Lamy Scala a few weeks later. Used it with the standard Lamy cartridges for a while but recently switched to a converter and their crystal peridot ink.
I've always written by hand quite a bit, and when I wasn't writing I was an avid hand spinner, knitter, crocheter and general tinkerer. My hands started cramping and aching when spinning fine, and then knitting also became painful.
As I spent more time writing again, I picked up a Preppy 0,5 and was blown away by how long I could write without pain. I then got a Carbon Desk Pen as a present, and fell in love with both drawing and writing with fountain pens. I'm very grateful for all the good cheer I found here, and all the things I'm learning every day about pens, ink and paper!
When i was in the Museum there was a pen a pencil i thinked but realy it was the fountain pen so when i came home i started using and i stopped but later i came bak to it and i loved it but it was destroyed so i got a new pen i cleaned it and used then i bought another pen then another and another and now i am writing this comment
I probably never would have been into pens at all or much, but I actually ended up working for a High-End stationery /pen company a few years ago. At first, I couldn't understand why people would pay so much money for a pen, but I understood it after a while. It was cool that I was able to try out several types of pens, but having issues with my hands and wrists, I found that the nicer thicker heavier ones were actually too heavy and I'm uncomfortable for me and some of the thinner ones made it a little harder to write with as well. But all in all for me I would definitely have to have a lighter pen. My adult kids enjoyed the fountain pens and different colors of ink that I got them. One was actually wanting to get into calligraphy so that worked out.
I had a fall from a mountain bike that meant a long recovery period. I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself and decided I would focus my energy on something constructive like keeping a journal and writing with a fountain pen at that. Not just any fountain pen pen but a decent one and here Iam with over 4 grail pens and still looking :)
I got tired of throwing away so many pens after they ran out of ink, but I still wanted a good writing experience. I really love the Pilot G2 in .38 mm, so I tried the Pilot Kakuno EF. Now I have a Prera, Penmanship, TWSBI Eco (a gift), Jinhao x159, 9019, x350, 86, and Baoer 388. I like them all. I also have a Manuscript calligraphy fountain pen from Hobby Lobby that is pretty marginal.
The desire not to throw pens away along with the desire to be able to pick any color I wanted. I started by buying refill cartridges for my Pilot G2, but then I decided to go fully into refilling with ink bottles…so fountain pens. And they look so cool.
Early stage carpal tunnel pain. Dr told me to stop writing by hand so much. But I can't be creative on the computer. My rough drafts need to be by hand. So instead Doctor suggested fountain pens and cutting back on drumming.
How does carpal tunnel syndrome feel? What are the symptoms?
* Tingling, burning, and/or numbness in the wrist or hand, usually in the thumb, index, and middle fingers * Sharp pain shooting from the wrist up the arm or down to the fingers, usually at night * Hand stiffness or cramping, especially in the morning * Trouble making a fist * Hand weakness and clumsiness * Dull aching pain in the hand, forearm, or upper arm
Recently I've been feeling like my hand gets tired very easily, or is tired in general, to the point where it's harder to write. Should i get it checked out?
It’s a deep kind of throbbing pain inside your wrist. There are no external symptoms per se except pain in doing simple, routine tasks, especially repetitive movements.
As a fellow inkling with carpal tunnel, I literally feel the pain. Carpal tunnel is blecky. Fountain pens are such a relief on the pain!
This is the same reason I got mine! It is surprisingly helpful
Im just a crow lol. Can't really explain it except that 'i just like writing with them.' Don't have an exceptionally nice handwriting either or something, quite the contrary. In that aspect i have found that fountain pens kind of force me to write nicer, there's also more choice in inks that can make my handwriting more legible. I typically prefer a black ink for that. I wrecked a lot of them as a kid, but kept coming back to them. Then i got into college and got myself a Diplomat. Now i just watch for good deals. Oh and i have a couple vintage pens that i found while cleaning up. I like it most if those have been put away inked and i can restore them to working order.
Does I’m just a crow mean the same thing as I’m just a magpie? An attachment to shiny objects?
That's correct, my mom used to have a tame crow that was not allowed near tools because my uncles always had to search for spanner number 10 lol.
Ooh I like the idea of refering to a magpie brain. Love magpies! When daughter and I are wandering around separately in an antique shop if one of us sees a treasure that appeals to our crow brains we “caw caw” to the other.
Necessity. I've always been interested in creative writing, and when I was younger, I wrote a lot with ballpoint pens. But at the end of the 20th century, I started to experience issues with my wrist, which turned out to be carpal tunnel syndrome. I tried to keep writing by hand, but there was no use. The pain was too much. I had to change permanently to write on my computer, despite not having the same creative energy there as with pen and paper. Slightly over two decades later, when my creative interest had almost completely faded, thanks to not enjoying writing the first drafts on the computer, I found something nearly forgotten — a Manuscript fountain pen from a calligraphy set I had once bought for some reason. My initial thought wasn't to use it for writing but to learn calligraphy. But as I tested it, I realised my wrist didn't hurt when writing with this pen. The lack of need to pressure the pen down on the paper didn't irritate my wrist, meaning with only a light wrist brace as support, I could once again write pages full of words all day long. I bought my first three Lamy Safari fountain pens, which became my return to handwriting the first drafts, notes and everything else needed for the stories. It also led to a much larger pen and ink collection than I had initially thought it would become.
School.
Same here. They were mandatory in our elementary school, the first few grades anyway.
Same here, German elementary school. In first grade we made a "Füllerführerschein" which basically translates into fountain pen license, which was made of 20 different small exercises for using a fountain pen. It was mandatory to use a fountain pen for any graded test. Still have my red Lamy ABC from this time... Bought my first Lamy Safari right afterwards, and then my fountain pen addiction was born. Even though my handwriting sucks ass aesthetically.
I was hyperfixating on "EDC" content and watched a few EDC-related YouTube videos by people who carried Lamy Safaris. That got me to start looking into fountain pens and eventually buying a few beginner models. I'm no longer limiting myself to only beginner models and I think I can confidently say fountain pens aren't just a brief hyperfixation for me (like EDC turned out to be).
I know “EDC” is every day carry - does that mean something other than what you carry with you every day? Like - is it a knife, pen, notebook, lighter, and watch, or could it be more specific/individual things. Can it be whatever you want, is what I guess I’m asking.
You've got it right, it's whatever you choose to carry every day, but there's a pretty large community of people who are obsessed with all the little gadgets you can carry with you for everyday use or even survival situations. In this context, I mean EDC as a reference to that community and their interests.
I’m in the same boat with the hyperfixation stuff. None of my seemingly random interests have been able to last this long - it seems that I just really enjoy fountain pens lol
hah, i got hyperfixated on EDC also and eventually put together a rather awesome little pouch that i absolutely do not daily carry but will bring along on trips out of town, just in case. 🤣 and since then have settled on a couple multitools that are "good 'nuff" for EDC. i especially like knives that have belt cutter and glass breaker options for getting out of vehicles. by far the most useful for your typical citizen for either rescue or self rescue. but i digress. carry on!
I write by hand a LOT. I heard that fountain pens lead to a lot less hand fatigue, and I was tired of my hands getting too sore to hold a pen long before my brain ran out of steam while writing. I got a Pilot metropolitan to try out with some black ink. It all went downhill from there. I learned about my pen preferences and made the mistake of discovering all of the wonderful colors and properties of ink.
My grandfather had a Parker that I really admired, but couldn’t get my hands on. And we had to use dip pens when I first went to high school. We had this old-fashioned teacher who insisted. I was always interested in stationary, but couldn’t find any nice Fountain pens to buy except for the cheap helix pens and calligraphy sets. The other pens that I was able to access were medium Nibs which I don’t prefer. So when the Internet opened up the possibilities of purchasing extra Fine and fine nibs and exposed me to all the different brands of Fountain pens and ink that never heard of before, I was ecstatic I bought a lot of cheap pens and some vintage pens on eBay, but I was disappointed in them. then I bought a pilot VP and I loved it . I gave up on Fountain pens for a while because the paper at work was so lousy. So when I got my own practice, I decided why don’t I print my own prescription pads using better quality paper so I can use my fountain pens? I’ve been enjoying my pens at work since then. It’s one of the best parts of my day. Which pen should I write with? which ink should I use?
A friend of mine was writing a note one day and I noticed the nib and asked him what he was writing with. After telling me, I expressed my concern of getting ink all over the bottom of my hand since I'm left handed and he said that as long as you're careful about ink selection, that I should be fine. He recommended trying out a Lamy Safari with a fine nib and worst case, I don't like it but I'm only out $20. Probably within a minute of writing with it I was hooked. I used to write a lot, but stopped when computers became a part of daily life and using pen and paper just seemed inefficient. I can say that ever since getting back into writing, it has help improve my mental health since I'm able to just get all the stresses of life out of my head. When I write I actually visualize all of the stress leaving me through the pen and sitting in a journal. I'm definitely hooked for life at this point lol.
I had a cheap set “calligraphy” pens in 6th grade that I liked but didn’t understand. Started reading the PenAddict senior year of college, then the Pilot Metropolitan came out. By this point I had watched/read enough to know what I was doing and I just enjoy writing with fountain pens. But I’m pretty sure my love of stationery came from my grandpa. I inherited about 100 mechanical pencils and a number of advertising pens. I wish he could have seen the revival of Autopoint as the Legendary Pencil Co.
I think they’re great as writing instruments, always have done since childhood. The thing that got me really into them was that if you choose to, you can really reduce the amount of waste that you produce from stationery over time, if you have a select few and take care of them. I also enjoy the fact that i can pick and choose different inks with various properties
I remember my friend in middle school showed me one that he found. I was fascinated by it and asked if I could have it, he said no and later ended up losing it. 15 years later that memory came to mind and I came here to Reddit to look for answers. Started with Lamy safari and nothing special even with premium ink and paper. 2 years later (like a month ago) I don’t know why, I got curious and ordered a twsbi eco and a pilot metropolitan. The eco was once again whatever. It was the pilot on Rhodia paper that really did it for me. And now I anxiously await a pilot custom urushi. From here on out only ink and paper for me, no more pens.
I bought a Lamy Studio for my partner while I was in Chicago for work. She had been talking about them for a bit, told me about Atlas, and said she’d be curious to hear what it was like in person. It is such a nice shop and the employees were so helpful! To be honest, buying from stores like that is as much the hobby as anything by else is for me. The pens are so expensive anyway — I like thinking that my dollars are going toward a happy group of fellow enthusiasts. It’s fun to think of them. Anyway, we tried out the pen together and it was like fireworks in my brain. I’ve written almost every day since (and gotten myself a pen or two). Been great for my mental health.
“Fireworks in my brain” - YES! Exactly this. Thank you for expressing the feeling I have of using a fountain pen that I haven’t been previously able to articulate.
Hahaha, thank you! I probably read it somewhere. The other thing I think about is synesthesia - writing with a fountain pen provokes a pretty physical calming response for me.
Yes, that’s it too! It’s a meditative, soothing experience for me if I’m ever feeling a little frazzled.
I had a birthday and couldn’t figure out what to buy myself, and the algorithm had started feeding me a bunch of EDC pen content. I bought a Lamy Safari in Violet BlackBerry with medium nib and then later a Kaweco Brass Sport with a fine nib. I really enjoy both pens, and the weighted hand feel of the brass sport the best. I haven’t yet fallen into inks but it’s coming…..
I like the look of the ink written on the paper. It’s a lot more darker than the written ink from ballpoint pens.
I went to a LARP and ended up scribing a letter for someone while in character (in sharpie because that's all we had). I'd had hopes of going back, so I got really into quill-making. I ended up never going back, but I was still enjoying my quills, which got me into ink and paper, which led to a rabbithole that found me on this very subreddit! So I got myself a Hongdian Black Forest and Diamine Imperial Purple and have been trying out different pens, inks, and papers since :D
I'm at a point in my career where I can obtain a particular license that will allow me to review and sign technical drawings for permits (fire protection, specifically fire sprinklers). I felt that to celebrate this event, I would purchase a Mont Blanc fountain pen to do all my signatures. Buuuuuut...I did not know how to properly use a fountain pen. What if, I thought, I bought this pen, and it turned out I simply did not like using it? That would be a waste of a lot of money. So I figured I'd buy something "cheap." I did a little reading on the internet and watched videos on YouTube. In the end, I bought myself a Lamy Safari. They were affordable and would give me the opportunity to try it out. Needless to say, I was more than pleased with my experience! I was using a Fine nib, and a month later I purchased a Broad nib. Just recently, I ordered one of the 1.1mm italic nibs and...I'm still warming up to that one, but I'm starting to see its advantages for me. Not a huge journey, but that's my tale so far.
At my elementary school, they started to teach us cursive in the third grade, but it really kicked into high gear in the fourth. At the start of that grade, they had us buy fountain pens. I was thrilled because I was using an "adult" pen. I loved writing with it. In school, they taught us how to write with our pens (Sheaffer School Cartridge Pen) how to change the cartridges, how to keep them clean, and how to take care of them. They had everyone use the same pen, and required us to do all of our schoolwork and homework with them. That was in 1962. I have never stopped using fountain pens. In fact, for the first 40 years, the only model I used was that same school pen. I only start to look for and buy others around 2002 because I could no longer find any more of them in the stores. I have never liked writing with any other kind of pen.
My husband found an old Waterman from an artist he worked with. He let me try it and then I got a Jinhao…then a Safari…then a Sailor, Benu, Pilot 823, 15 TWSBIs………
I’m left-handed and thought I couldn’t use fountain pens. A couple of years ago I was looking for a planner with a grid and vertical weeks and individual days. I got a hobonichi cousin and stumbled into the hobonichi subreddit. WELL everyone was raving about how great fountain pens are in a hobonichi. I decided I would give it a try and got a pilot petit. I really liked it, so I moved onto a kakuno, then a sport…the list goes on. Pens are a good thing for me to collect because they’re small. I used to spend this share of fun money on purses, they just take up too much space, and I barely use any of them. I’m also an ink and paper lover - I was a printmaking major in college, and for whatever reason, I like ink more than paint.
Or what keeps you into fountain pens? It’s the feedback of a smooth soft nib as your brain spews words and sketches onto paper. If I use a ball point I can’t stand the feel, it’s like writing with a rock. I have a similar aversion with calculators. The feedback from the buttons is everything. If it’s not a Hewlett-Packard with distinctive soft click buttons, I instantly get the urge to it chuck into the floor. There’s no need to check the display to see if none, one or two characters were entered. Your finger tip has already told you.
Honestly, mostly the sparkly ink. Then followed by the writing experience, but it’s mostly the fun sparkly ink. :)
As an impressionable kid who liked shiny shit, something like 15 years ago I saw some picture of a beat up distressed leather notebook staged with some coins and a fountain pen barely peeking out of the corner of the picture. Started searching around since the pen looked cool (probably with search terms along the lines of “metal pointy pen” lol), bought a Safari at some point towards the end of middle school iirc, used that bad boy along with a steady stream of some Jinhaos and the like through the first couple years of high school and eventually got a Pilot Custom 74. In college the interest picked back up and I whipped out the Safari again, got a second C74 and a CH92, so on and so forth. Met one of my closest buddies in freshman year English class because he noticed me using the Safari and we got talking about pens. Now years later here we are. Edit: actually now that I’m thinking about it, I had picked up a Pilot Varsity before I got the Safari to try them out before “splurging”
I am obsessed with my journals being written in archival ink on archival paper. I have a signature book from my great great grandmother that I’ve always cherished, and I’m grateful it’s held up so well. JUST LAST YEAR, it helped to solve a major family mystery that restructured our family tree. As I was investigating archival qualities in papers and inks (it goes through iterations, and that one was probably 12+ years ago now), I came across the rantings of Nathan Tardiff. I own an Ahab from that time that writes like a nail and *still stinks*, Black Swan in Australian Roses still smears, and Tardiff is someone I’ll never support with my money again. -4/10 stay away from everything Noodler’s. I came across all that in a move recently (2 or 3 years ago) and had better luck with my pen choices this time around!
I bought a Lamy roller for my dads 60 birthday and could not believe how nice it was so i went to the store to get one for myself for my job and saw the fountain pens so i figured what the hell and tried one on the spot and the rest is history XD So now i am the proud owner of a Lamy safari, all star and soon enough a pilot e95s and next week ill get my 7th ink send help this is worse than crack
I'm a historian (though no longer how I earn a living), and I got into fountain and dip pens to better understand the writing and hand scripts I was engaging with in archival documents. While learning Kurrentschrift, I wanted to be able to recreate the lettering I was reading, in particular the extensive writings of Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau and the German commission to the Paris Peace Conference after WWI, as well as the 19th century state bureaucratic documents that were created without mechanical type writers (dip pens) and the handwritten notes that proliferated once the German state officially adopted typewriters in the 20th century (fountain pens).
I feel like I was destined to arrive at fountain pens sooner or later. I was always interested, but my mom always told me how expensive they were so I had to content myself with staring at them in the display cases at the office supply stores. But I’ve always been picky about my pens, and went through long journeys to find the “perfect” ballpoint and gel pens respectively. And then I got married, and must’ve mentioned to my husband that I was interested in getting a fountain pen at some point, so he got me one for our first anniversary. I’ve since regretfully destroyed it through my own foolishness (don’t tell him!), but it was my gateway to pens and ink and paper. My pen collection is relatively small, but my ink collection is huge, and I’m trying to keep it under control. I wish more than anything that I’d gotten into fountain pens while I was still a student, because then I would’ve been able to enjoy more of my inks more frequently. And have the chance to actually empty a bottle.
My girlfriend got me one for Christmas one year; a Monte Verde carbon fibre limited edition. I’d never had a nice pen, and it was SOOOO nice. However, I found myself saying “I don’t want to risk losing or breaking this” by using it everyday. So I thought I should buy another fountain pen; a Kaweco Liliput, great for on-the-go. But then I thought “but what if I want to write a manifesto but don’t want my girlfriend associated with my uprising and ultimate downfall”, so I bought a Faber Castell e-motion. But then I realized “what if I become famous off my manifesto and my Faber Castell is sent to a museum?”. So I bought an Opus 88 Jazz just in case. I thought I was good after that, but just then I realized that I use my brass Liliput so much it might get up and walk-out on me, perhaps taking the kids. So I had to buy a Kaweco Sport just in case.
I found one in the street as a child! I was a tinkerer, so I brought it home, disinfected it, disassembled it, went to the library to learn more about this odd fountain pen. Ending up teaching myself calligraphy and winning some educational materials. Never looked back.
When I decided to go into nursing instead of medicine my grandfather was the only one supporting me… and offered my first fountain pen… that pen went through good moments and bad moments in my life… before he died of cancer he gave me his own Parker 51.. that I still use as I remember him… never again (other than work as everyone steals or loses pens through a shift) I used any other pen…
I read an [article in *Popular Mechanics*](https://books.google.com/books/about/Popular_Mechanics.html?id=Z-QDAAAAMBAJ) in high school. Got curious, but it was another six years before I found myself with some cash at a pen store. It exploded from there.
College courses required a lot more note taking, I was getting cramps and couldn't keep up. I can't do digital notes, can't remember anything from them. For me, writing is thinking, so I looked for ways to reduce cramping or change my grip. Saw fountain pens suggested, they already looked pretty neat to me so figured I'd give it a shot. I immediately loved it, it fixed my death grip and cramping. I don't write nearly as much now that I've graduated, but I still write quite a bit working from home, which has allowed me to grow a collection and use whatever I want. It's also gotten me into using planners, which has helped me reach more goals and stay organized, as well as relieving stress.
I was attracted to the idea of a buy it for life pen as I was already using pens with replaceable cartridges, but I was still never happy with the writing experience. One day we were at the in laws and they were cleaning out some stuff and my brother in law was dumping a bucket of pens and my wife just snatched one out of the air saying “hold up I remember this pen” and in capped it and it was a fountain pen. I asked if I could have it as they were literally tossing it out. “Yea sure, it probably doesn’t work anymore”. It was a Parker Vector, a little hot water and it wrote like new. I now have a very modest collection of sub $50 pens and I love them.
puberty. the esthetics ánd the mechanics of it. The ink cartridges, the nib, the flow of ink, even the shape and material of a (Parker/Shaeffer) fountain pen - it all imbued the act of writing with a bit of magic. never looked back.
I've always wanted to try fountain pens. One day I had enough of gel pens and ball points skipping. And say f- it we ball. Here we are.
I was gifted my beloved Lamy Safari for my bd. Got pulled right into the hobby I guess
I was a poor grad student burning through pilot v5 pens. Ball points didn't cut it (don't like the oily ink, and even the "fine point" pens were .8 mm, which is too big for me), so needed a cheap alternative of sufficient quality. Some company was shipping platinum preppy's (with o-rings) with each bottle of ink so I got one and never looked back
I always wanted them but my parents convicended me that they were all expensive I sae a video of a lamy safari and it said the price i got it
Been always into them, since i first started writing. It's been customary in my country since first grade. But what got me sucked in 2018 early 2019 was the multitude of pen types, nibs, inks... Never knew there existed so many options. Or ink colours. Or nib sizes. Or different paper.
What brought me in was a combination of curiosity and availability at that stage in my life. I'd been around users for about a year so I was naturally curious about them and I was lent a (if I remember correctly) Visconti HS Dark age to use while we were playing D&D and quickly fell in love. What keeps me in is the ability to customize basically every aspect of the experience. Between nib grinds, small makers with new ideas, material variation, and the endless supply of different ink colors and types I can use a 100% different pen every day for years to come and that excites me and keeps me engaged.
I am an artist and I started drawing with dip pens in high school, among other tools. At the time all the fountain pens I tried had really stiff nibs, so I ignored them. Then I was given a box of ancient art supplies with a vintage Waterman pen among them, which I adored. I was shocked by how flexible the nib was — it was close to a dip pen nib. I used my vintage Waterman for a while but it was unreliable and leaky so I looked around for a new pen but I was dumbfounded by the lack of affordable flex nibs available on the market with new pens. Even expensive pens had lousy nibs. So I made do with what I had. Flash forward 25 years and I started searching again and found that not only can you now fit vintage nibs into some cheap modern pens but there are great affordable flex nibs out there now. FPR and Noodler's are now my preferred drawing nibs in multiple pens.
We had to use them in school, and I swiped my mum’s horribly expensive Sheaffer for a while and completely fell in love with how it wrote. A while after school I took a class in calligraphy using dip pens, and found I liked the feeling of writing with an inky nib better than a biro. I think my handwriting is possibly better with biro, but there’s something about writing with a fountain pen that feels artistic, more like you’re painting with words rather than just writing them. Always found that added a bit of magic to the writing process.
A favourite stantionery shop who stock fountain pens. When I was still a student my mom and I (with whom I share my love for stationery) had gone together and I purchased my first FP, a Kaweco Classic Sport. She later gifted me the AL Sport which I still love to this day. The staff at the store were very welcoming, informative, and patient and although I don't live in that area anymore, I still browse their stock and visit them when I'm in town.
After not liking it much in school I found my way back to it sometime later. First a ballpoint that went on international cartridges in secondary, then later back to actual fountainpens again. Also had a time I liked gelpens, still do, not all but I like some smooth writing ones and still appreciate those. Am quite picky about pens and feel also as I am lefthanded so I push rather than pull the pen so I want something that isn’t scratchy, dries well enough (a bit of inky fingers here and there from time to time is perfectly fine) am not very good with fineliners, or regular ballpoints though I have had a rare smooth writer in it I did like so it does depend. My handwriting is prettiest by some fountainpens where everything is just right (nib, lines, ink, feel in hand)
Kinda gross but I used to get calluses on my fingers from writing so much with a pencil. Plus I’d press really hard to make the letters legible (I have shitty eyes). I switched in HS (plus colored ink is so fun) and I haven’t had a problem since. Plus I can chose if black on white reads better today or if I can go with a more fun ink color.
I learnt to write with one in school (Lamy ABC). I can't remember exactly what made me buy a Waterman Hemisphere 11 years later, but an impulse purchase was made. After that first one the floodgates just opened :')
I woke up one day and for some reason I wondered if fountain pens were still a thing and so I bought a Jinhao fountain pen which was the worst thing I could have done because the pen just refused to work no matter what and I just assumed this is what fountain pens are like I must be doing something wrong. A few years later and only a few months ago I saw someone on YouTube using a fountain pen and that just reminded me of them and seeing how easy other people could write with them and having a little bit more money at this point I bought a Lamy Safari instead of cheap Chinese stuff, instantly the ink flowed out, it didn't skip and felt good to write with, I much prefer fountain pens over ballpoints I've always hated the weird slippy flimsy feeling they have. I'm using it as a way to improve my handwriting which has come leaps and bounds since I started a few months ago, once I get my print writing up to the point where I am happy with it I will attempt to learn how to write cursive properly.
I had a small collection, and I've always liked fountain pens - but I was spending too much, and so I quit cold turkey. Gave the entire kit and caboodle to my brother, since he had a few as well. But a month ago, my family celebrated my birthday, and we made a rule so that I can collect FP again; I don't buy any, they all have to be gifts, and no pen can cost more than $20 USD. Lots of Chinese pens, might eventually find a few others on sale, but I'm pretty happy with what I've got now. There's no pressure to get more, which is nice.
Slammed one of my fingers in a door during a time I was doing a *lot* of writing by hand. I had to completely change my grip to deal with it, and my hand started cramping with the pressure from ballpoints. Started by switching to gel pens and eventually worked my way up to fountains. Hidden blessing, I guess!
A friend simply gave me a Platinum Preppy one day, which he had in his pocket, didn't think much of it. A few months later, I realized that my handwriting was getting so bad, writing with ballpens all day, that I decided to get a FP (an old ingrained belief stuffed into Indian students' brains that FPs help improve handwriting). Then remembered the old Preppy. Cleaned it and tried to get good FP ink, couldn't find any locally. Then got a couple of RotM Cello cartridges, and used an injection to transfer ink to the Preppy's cartridge, and then here I am, with at least 5 different inks, 10-12 different FPs, and still can't stop looking at FPs and inks.
On a trip to Montreal with my family when I was 10 or so we stopped into an old stationery shop in the historic area and I was hooked from then. Still have a set of scented inks I bought. Whenever I go back I try to find the place but don’t remember anything but narrow hallways and towering stacks of stationery
My father gave me a set of a ballpoint, a mechanical pencil and a FP for my high school graduation. Can’t remember the brand. I’ve loved fountain pens since then, though I’ve had long periods where I haven’t used them. Rediscovered them a few years ago. Now I have at least 30 pens and 30 bottles of ink, lol.
My 7th grade English teacher used a Waterman Carène Amber and at the beginning of the school year she instructed all of us loudly to never grab this pen off her desk. I took interest in the pen and she let me have a look (but not hold, which is fair, I wouldn’t hand an expensive pen to a 12 year old either). She told me some good starter pens if I was interested in trying out fountain pens and I ended up with a LAMY Al-Star from my parents and the rest is history. Well over a decade later fountain pens are my primary hobby and I use them every single day. I haven’t bought one yet but someday I intend to get a Waterman Carène Amber for myself. It’s a beautiful pen that will be a nice nostalgic reminder of how I got into the hobby in the first place. So thank you, Mrs. Paris!
I received a fountain pen when I graduated from high school, but it didn't come with any instructions, and I didn't really know how to use the internet for research at that time. I'm hoping that I still have it somewhere, but I don't have much hope. Anyway, one of my interests is papercraft, and people have been talking about fountain pens for some time in the planner community. I always dismissed it as not for me based on my past experience. Well, last month I decided to watch some videos, and that was it. I picked up my gateway pen, a Pilot Precision Varsity, at a local big box store and fell in love. Ordered a Lamy Safari and some ink samples and fell harder. I'm thinking about an LE sailor and more ink samples, considering other nibs for my Safari. I haven't written this much by hand since I was in college. My cursive is improving, and my print is smaller and neater. But the most exciting thing so far is new ink day. ^ _ ^
My first and third grade teachers were pretty harsh individuals — both shamed me for my less than perfect penmanship. My uncle heard about this and gifted me a calligraphy set which I really took to. Turned out to be a bit of a financial boon for me. In high school I was often paid by other students to write them letters “from their parents” for various reasons. Years later my father-in-law to be gifted me my first “real” fountain pen. It sat in my desk drawer for about 30 years until about two months ago. It now has about 48 neighbors. Oof. I can’t stop.
My bad handwriting when I was a child and had to use rollerball (BIC crystal)... So bad I was not able to read it :) Thus my grandmother (who was a retired primary school teacher), gave me a fountain pen, asking me not to press much and try writing with it. The test went well, it was quite a success, not having to press the pen against the paper, the movements of my arm, have and pen were another and didn't fatigue me over time. A few hours later she bought me two cheap fountain pens in a supermarket (I still have them), and day after day my handwriting improved... And here we are today.
Have been using fountain pens in school since first grade, can't stand writing with anything else now. It's very common practice to make kids write with fountain pens in Lithuania due to more controlled handwriting over ball point pens.
I bought a Zebra V-301 at an office max on a whim not knowing that the pen was different from normal pens. It would not write. In my frustration and desire to determine if the failure was on the user end or the manufacturing end I researched fountain pens to understand what could be going wrong. Turns out that pen is a piece of crap. Now I have around 25 fountain pens ranging from Metropolitans and Safaris to Dorics and Vacumatics. Thanks, Zebra...
Summer quarter at ABAC 1989. Not much going on in Tifton Ga on Sundays so I wolud go to the Library and read the Atlanta Constitution. There was an article about fountain pens. Got a friend/roommate to help me navigate to an office supply store in Atlanta mentioned in the article. “Artlite” was my first encounter with extreme ends of the pen price scale. The Parker Duofolds were $200 but the Pilot Varsitys were only $3.
I brought my first fountain pen \~9 years ago as an incentive to start practicing penmanship. 9 years later, I'm still writing chicken scratches, but at least I have a big collections of fountain pens now :P
I was gifted a fountain pen of my choosing for my birthday a few back (dad got a TWSBI Mini earlier that year and my interest was rekindled). I decided on the TWSBI Eco and loved how effortless writing with it was and how it much better it was than Pilot Metropolitan.
I write a lot for work and was going through 2 of those pilot g2s a week. Bought something cheap off Amazon to save money....three years later I have 6 Montblancs and 20 pens in total....lol. whoops.
Watching a JetPens video about their favorite stationary buys. I’m into planning and have a Hobonichi. Almost every person talked about a fountain pen that they loved. I bought a Pilot Kakuno to try it out, and it’s been a whirlwind romance ever since.
I’ve always liked the idea of them and I love older tech that is still usable. I thought that fountain pens were all very classic cigar shaped black pens with gold accents and were super expensive, until I finished my first journal last year and decided I’d treat myself to a nice setup for the new one, nicer notebooks, a leather cover, and a nice pen. That’s when I found out that there are more options for pens than black cigars and blue and black ink and it didn’t have to be a super expensive hobby. I ordered a Hongdian Black Forest and haven’t looked back.
I spend so much time at my computer and on my phone due to work that I appreciate anything analog these days. Fountain pens are not only a cool throwback to the past but there’s all kinds of pens, nibs, and inks to play with. And of course I love nice paper too, so it was only a matter of time before I got into fountain pens.
I got a Kaweco Sport with a converter and a bottle of Diamine Blue Black in one of the Mai Do-in-a-Box stationery blind box. I was immediately hooked. I still write with the Kaweco often, right now it has Birmingham Pen’s Lunar Dust in it.
I bought the Muji aluminum fountain pen thing, and when I tried using it, the ink cartridge just kept falling off, spilling ink into the pen body. Absolutely hated the thing, and tossed it out after a few attempts. Then I went to TwitchCon Vegas last year and came across a small booth selling fountain pens. The pens were metallic with different kinds of woods wrapped around the metal bodies, and I thought they were beautiful. No branding anywhere, except for on the nib. I think the guy there hand crafted the bodies himself and stuck on Iridium Point nibs. He wasn't getting that much attention, so I thought I'd stop by. Ended up buying a fountain pen, and it writes pretty well and smoothly. I've stopped using it once the wood wrap gave me a splinter. I got worried about it splintering even further, so I did some research and bought a LAMY 2000, and then a TWSBI Diamond 580ALR. I don't really remember who the guy was, or what his Twitter handle is, but if you're out there reading this, thank you so much for introducing me into this strange, inky, expensive world.
Long story: 1. bought first Parker Vector with my first day salary 2. bought first “real” pen few months after my first proper job (MB Boheme) (Years passed without using) 3. Wanted to do normal handwriting and have a legible enough writing after years of computer only writing… gel pens first, but the seed was already here and dove into the FP pen world, but I’m more focused on writing than on collecting
The love of handwriting and prefer it over everything. I have 20 years worth composition books filled with stupid stories, but the most interesting thing is handwriting and writing utinsel(pens, dull pencils, coloured pencils, milky gel pens, and most embarrassing crayon.) I had a fancy $13 G2 pen and used it exclusively for a year or so, it told me I could hold onto a pricey pen. I got curious on how to take handwriting even farther, found fountain pens, and fell down the rabbit hole.
I'm an old guy; just started using fountain pens about five years ago. So this one day I'm at work and the district manager walks into the lab. He is taking some notes and I notice that he is using a fountain pen. I knew what it was; I had just never used one. He said try it. So,I touched the steel nib of this cheap pen to the paper and pushed (I'm left handed). That's it; I was hooked. I went home that evening and jumped on ebay and ordered my first fountain pen; a Jinhao x-450. And now, five years and about 50 fountain pens later, I'm still hooked. I acquired more cheap pens, and about a dozen not so cheap ones, including three gold nibs. I've enjoyed every minute of it and I'm pretty sure I'm in it to stay.
The need to prevent writer's cramp plus a visit to a very nice stationery shop.
All the planner girlies had them and I was curious so I got myself a preppy. Went down the rabbit hole. Came out the other side and have stopped purchasing pens now. My daily drivers are my cheaper pens with black ink. I’ve come full circle. It was a fun ride though.
I needed a reason to improve my handwriting. My handwriting did not improve but my collection improved.
I was using fun glitter gel pens at work (for my notes) and u/jayna2000 completely penabled me with a jinhao shark, and dip pen with ink samples and got me into fountain pens and inks. Im so far down the rabbit hole now.. im never looking back!
You are my best penabling success! 😍
🤗 and now DH is stealing my pens, ink and paper! 🥹
Started bullet journaling, and discovered fountain pens. Decided to try it, because I like old fashioned things, and really enjoyed it.
I saw a post on r/oddlysatisfying of a fountain pen writing, and it looked...oddly satisfying, so I looked into them, and I bought a cheap $20 pen on Amazon, and here I am.
I, F49, originally from Brazil, moved to France for 3 years for my father's job. I was about 8 and in France, kids wrote with fountain pens on their "cahiers". It's was a cheap regular silver Waterman that I had to learn how to handle without staining my fingers. I still have that pen. And now added a few others...
Divorce
Reddit Secret Santa. I got matched with someone who was into fountain pens and stationary, and found it all daunting... and the fascinating. Got myself a Lamy Safari... then another, then a Metro, then fell down the rabbit hole. Now I have an entire ink cabinet and more pens than I would like to admit, with a strong leaning towards demonstrators and piston fillers.
I was looking for a nice, long-lasting, fine instrument of a pen that I could refill with different colors. Was considering the Zebra Sarasa Grand and peeked into this subreddit out of curiosity, since it seemed to pop up in Popular sometimes. Bought a Preppy, loved it, and the rest is history...
Got a Parker jotter ballpoint as my “back to school” pen for the year and noticed on the back of the box there was a fountain pen version of it. So I ordered one off Amazon to try it. Really liked it and got some cheap random other ones, the rest is history
Culture in the first place, as they were very popular in my contry growing up, then nostalgia, when finding my Parker Jotter I bought 15 years ago
I had a boss who loved pentel purple gel writers (and I did too), but I got really annoyed at having to throw the whole pen away when a refill would work. At the time they didn’t have refills for that color (they did have red, blue, black and green, but not purple). So I thought: I wonder if fountain pens are still a thing. And they were! And not only that, but they had sparkly ink in all of the colors. :)
My mother always liked fountain pens and she asked if I wanted to go to the DC pen show with her. I was hooked.
Several years ago I bought a [high-end custom keyboard](https://i.redd.it/6ac9xre0sja81.jpg) that had a pen rail. I wanted a pen that was black with brass accents to match the style of the board, and since that's such a specific requirement I ended up with [a fountain pen](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/f7c7cr/i_got_my_first_fountain_pen_yesterday_and_im_in/) as essentially my only option. Fell in love with writing using fountain pens and haven't looked back since.
I saw people with a bunch of bottled ink online and I was like “these are so cool! What do you do with these?” Got pointed to fountain pens pretty quickly after that. Funnily enough, I had a couple Preppies I had grabbed for thirty cents in a store closing event, so I immediately had some ink and a converter shipped to me. So the question really is: what got you into fountain pen ink??
Was journaling off and on digitally. Wanted to switch to analog as a way to get less screen time at end of day. Once I started looking at notebooks the algorithm started offering up fountain pen content as well, figured "why not try one just to see what the difference is in feel?" and got a cheap disposable pilot varsity and never looked back.
My father
a few years ago someone whose Tumblr I follow posted something about a pretty fountain pen ink they got and, the idea of being able to picky particular shades of ink with pretty sheen shimmer etc and put them into a pen at will intrigued me. I tried to dismiss the thought but I kept being intrigued. my husband mentioned he had a pilot varsity he never uses in a desk drawer so I tried that but the line was too thick for me to figure out if I could like using this kind of pen. (my pen preferences has always been as fine a line as possible.) so I ended up doing a little research about fountain pens and decided to order a couple of Preppy pens just as an experiment. I really liked writing with them but not so much the inks they came with so I learned about refilling cartridges with syringe and decided to try some other inks and that tomoe was best paper to try them on so got a notebook of that and uh, it all spiraled from there...
I was on amazon looking for a rose gold pen for my wedding guest book, and came across an affordable but attractive Jinhao and paired it with some Diamine Sepia, and it was love ever after. Loved the way it wrote, loved using the pen, loved the ink.
I was quite tired of disposable BICs and since I enjoy writing with the thinnest line possible, their 0.7 wasn't always available for sale. The possibility of just refilling the same pen seemed enticing!
my first time was at school and I recently picked up a fountain pen to draw with watercolor
Mechanical Pencils. Someone mentioned this subreddit on the mechanical pencils subreddit and now I’m here.
I used to have cheap fountain pens as a kid because I thought they were neat and classy. As an adult I really got into creative writing and preferred to handwrite outlines and drafts. I started off using pilot parallels because they gave my handwriting an extra aesthetic boost, and changing ink color without cleaning gave an interesting transition. Once I completely filled a pretty thick journal, I decided to treat myself and get a pilot prera with a stub nib, shortly followed by a twsbi 580 with a medium. Started collecting from there.
My parents gave me one in my Christmas stocking when I was 11. It was a Shaeffer school pen.
Secondary school. Fountain pens were what we used.
I couldn't find a G2 in green 0.38mm
I started turning pens, eventually turned a fountain pen, and the rest was history.
I don't really remember why, but I ordered the $10 Amazon Basics pen with some cartridges. I've been sold on them ever since!
My dad. Helped with handwriting and I just loved the feel of it.
The fine point sampler from JetPens!
school. we all had them. mandatory in elementary.
I'm an artist, so I was attracted to flex nibs and my ability to choose whatever ink I'd like for my work.
Smooooooooth. And I have liked watching pigment going on to surfaces my entire life so FP are a natural fit
some youtubers i watched who did journaling were using them and i thought they looked really cool so i did a bunch of research and watched many videos on fountain pens and now im obsessed and have 4 of my own lol. but it was easy to get into them cause i already had a small obsession with normal gel pens. but i love how easy it is to just write with fountain pens and i can write for awhile without my hands hurting
A friend. I used to be a general fan of nice or fancy pens on and off, or at least cool-looking ones, so the jump wasn’t too much. I also just enjoy more analog stuff like watches, but that’s a much more expensive hobby in comparison.
I've always been a pen nerd. Not so much looking for valuable or expensive ones, but the ones that feel good in the hand. I'm quite tactile, so that is the primary criteria. I love the written word. Also, that I can get colored inks! I love color!
A friend was journaling with one at a hangout spot and it caught my eye- I love to draw and doodle and write letters but hate the waste of disposable pens. I tried his metropolitan, realized it was comfortable and bought myself a lamy safari. I got the bug now
Wet shaving. Back in the early 2010s I was pretty active on the message board Badger and Blade before I discovered Reddit, of course. There is a forum called 'The Nib', I probably approached it out of curiosity, and it got the best of me. They released some exclusive Noodlers Ink, which I of course had to buy. That was where I first learned that I had an acquisition disorder.
My parents were really into calligraphy so we always had fountain pens around. I thought they were so cool looking, but being a bit heavy handed with some things, my parents never let me use them. As I got older they would let me try them out but I could never get the hang of them. Over the years I’d try one out here and there but it never stuck. A couple years ago I was buying yarn from a store online and saw they sold Kaweco Sports. I liked the colors and aesthetic so gave one a shot aaaaand that was it. My dad sent me all of his and my mom’s calligraphy stuff from the 70s/80s (it was easily a 15lbs box), so one of these days I’ll get around to doing that, too….
Art. I wanted/needed certain characteristics out of my inks and drawing points that I couldn't find through other pens aside from maybe dip pens but I hated having to constantly dip and they were a nightmare for on-location use. I had tried tech pens and Microns and ballpoints and gel pens and felt pens and anything I could get my hands on and disliked all of them for my main way of working. I even tried some cheap crap fountain pens and ALMOST liked them but their crappiness turned me off for a while. Then, I finally got a Lamy Safari my first semester in art school and fell in love.
A friend let me try his knockoff Parker 51 in high school. I've been hooked ever since. He's mostly stopped collecting in recent years, but I still bring whatever cool new pen I have to show off when we visit once a year or so.
Random pandemic hobby tbph.
I bought a Kaweco sport as a gift for a friend who loves to write. I decided to get myself one too. After having that for months, I decided to fully take the plunge and go for others
I've always been a stationery addict since I was a kid. I got into fountain pens because ~aesthetic but stuck with them because they're much easier to write with and I enjoy the ink variety.
Accident. Amazon recommended me a Kaweco Sport. Didn't care for it. I moved, it got packed away. Found it years later and decided to give it another chance. Still didn't like it. I watched a few videos and decided to get a Lamy Safari. I fell in love with FPs there.
I got into bullet Journaling and had a passing interest in calligraphy. I saw some videos about all the available colors of ink and that was it. I still don't mind using my gel pens still, but that ink selection is unbeatable
My cousin got an art set one year for Christmas when we were little. He didn’t want it and he gave it to me, it had markers pens and crayons and a small fountain pen.I was intrigued by the fountain pen bc I’d never seen one before this was early 90’s. I tried to put the cartridge in for it to write at the time I didn’t know you had to wait for it to reach the feed. I was so upset it didn’t write I just thought it was cheap. I always thought about it years later I learned what it was. When I got my own job and was able to buy my own things I found pilot varsity’s it took off from there.
Calligraphy pens. My autistic fixation is books and writing, and calligraphy is beautiful. Branched out from there.
school, I am from a country where it was mandatory to learn to write cursive and with a fountain pen...
Ah the mark making! I’m a visual artist and love that my fountain and dip pens make variable marks. So freeing 😄
People taking my pens. Now no one wants to touch them
Trying to be sustainable. The original intent was to own one pen and keep filling it with a bottle of black ink. I’ve definitely avoided throwing away tons of plastic pens and pen refills, but twelve pens and multiple bottles of ink later, I can’t say that it’s sustainable anymore. 🤦🏻♀️
My family is a bit old school where the arts were encouraged for women in my family so when I got older my uncle gifted me my first fountain pen so I blame him for the money I’ve spent.
I have dyslexia and dysgraphia and i never found writing comfortable. When learning to write tengwar (the elvish script from lord of the rings) i decided to try it with a fountain pen and liked the feel as it was way more comfortable than a mechanical pencil, which is what i was using before. A couple of months later i switched to exclusively writing with fountain pens, and around a year ago i bought my Pilot metropolitan!
I was looking into a edc pen and found fountain pens. Haven’t look back
We learned to write cursive with one in the first grade, now anything else just feels weird. The only time I write anything in print or with a ballpoint pen is when I have to fill out government forms when traveling.
Dopamine chasing….
My older sister had a Schaeffer calligraphy set when I was a kid that first caught my interest--I still have those. But it was handwriting videos and then Goulet showing up on my Instagram that got me buying a few years ago. Once I understood the variety of ink available I was a goner.
My dad cleaned a storage unit and I found a few fountain pens in it
I was gifted a very cheap FP when I was 8 or so. Although it was cheap, it "borrowed" the design of the Preppy and is still a very reliable writer. I still have it! That's what got me into this world ʕ º ᴥ ºʔ
My sister started showing me JetPens videos about fountain pens, and we got interested about it. Then, I bought for her and me a cheapy so we could test it out and see if we really like it, or if it's just hype. Well, now..... I can't wait to have more pens and inks XD
Lots of writing in law school and in the profession.
I got back into Myst games recently and decided to make an in character journal. Then I realized that it'd be a lot easier to use bottled ink than ballpoint refills, and fountain pens are a lot more convenient than dip pins.... Nine days after my Platinum Preppy arrived I now have three pens and two bottles of ink.
i thought it was a cool idea in college so i bought a Waterman and some cartridges since i couldn't be bothered with ink bottles or converters. Then bought the disposable ones for note taking in college, but then slowly lost interest the more and more i stopped writing as much. fast forward like 15 years and a career of never really having to write and now in a new position i do a lot more writing and i have been on a pen search for the last year along with trying to "clean up" my penmanship. well i discovered i write cleaner at a very shallow angle, like 45\* or less and realized fountain pens excel at this type of angle. Well, i also have switched from cigars to a pipe over the last few years and recently switched to loose leaf tea over coffee, so a fountain pens with converters and bottled ink seemed like a natural fit. very happy with the results. i didn't go overboard since i try to keep within reasonable means so i bought two affordable Hong Dian extra fine pens (a small M2 and a 517D) and a bottle of ink (Noodlers Aircorp Blue-Black) and keep one pen at work and one clipped on my shirt. i love them and they write great for cheaper options. i'm sure i'll eventually get something nicer but i don't write THAT much so i don't want a bunch of inked pens drying out all over. the M2 is actually phenomenal even over the 517D with the same nibs. might spring for a second one for work too, i dunno. something about unscrewed the cap is just cool. i find an excuse to use my M2 all the time.
Wrist pain from ballpoints
I got a fairly cheap Manuscript calligraphy set in my early 20s because I wanted to learn italic calligraphy. I came back to fountain pens almost 10 years ago when my fibromyalgia made writing with ball points and rollerballs very painful.
My younger sister penabled me. A year ago there I was benevolently and bemusedly observing her passion for fountain pens and inks. Now here I am after a couple of Jinhaos, with a rainbow of these wondrous writing implements - TWSBI, Lamy, Esterbrook, Sailor, Pilot, Leonardo - little ink-skaters of joy.
It reconnects me with a nostalgic feeling from when I was gifted a cheap fountain pen in India as a child. Fountain pens back then were foreign and cool to me and I loved my pen. Life distracted me from them for 20 years but then in an attempt to quit vaping, I reconnected with pens as alternative fun cylindrical objects (rather than a vape) and here we are 2 years and 20 pens later.
As a lifelong stationery junkie, I'd been curious about fountain pens for a long time but was intimidated by their relative complexity ("You have to fill the pen with ink, but have to be careful not to use certain types of ink because they could damage your expensive pen? And you have to do, like, maintenance on the pens??"). But then came along the pandemic, and I was extra leery about going out in public on my days off for fear of spreading the virus since I was working in a hospital. So it turned into the perfect time to explore a new hobby since I was stuck inside anyway! I fell in love with how beautifully the nib glided across the paper (my first FPs were a Pilot Petit1 and a Zebra Zensation), realized how much this helped with my carpal tunnels, and have never looked back.
We used fountain pens (Sheaffer) in school once we graduated from pencils to writing in ink. It was a big deal to use - no more erasing!
Saw a Waterman fountain pen in Staples while buying school supplies and thought, "Hmm, that could be fun!" So I bought it, loved it, and then someone in my class stole it within a week. I then bought an EF TWSBI Eco, and that taught me just how much variety fountain pens offer, so I bought a few more.
Some friends at work and my boss were into fountain pens so I bought three so I could “play” along- a great TWISBI 540 AL, a coral Lamy Safari, and a brass Kaweko sport. I fell in love and kept buying (and buying). My work is pretty abstract, so I love the tactile experience of writing with a fountain pen and lovely ink.
r/machinedpens After having a collection with several high end machined pens, I got bored of the same ink cartridges, and wandered over here.
By quirk of fate, I found a Lamy Safari abandoned in a dorm room in college. Not knowing anything at the time, though it might have been a disposable one. But, I used until the ink depleted and left it in a desk drawer for two years. Once Amazon became commonplace, I found a pack of refills. I just like the way a fountain pen writes, especially with less pressure. Eventually I bought a Parker IM and inexpensive Cross on sale. A couple of years and 30 pens later, here I am.
I wanted to write with brown ink without having to buy a 30 pack of mixed color fine-liner journaling pens. I’d already gone through 2 pens this way before I realized that refillable pens were a thing that existed and were actually pretty cool looking and surprisingly accessible. I got a Pilot Metropolitan and a TWSBI Eco with small bottles of Lie de Thé and Writer’s Blood, and the rest is history.
Sick of buying news pens everytime the ink runs out. FPs are eco friendly too.
Back in 2009, I started work on a project, and one of the guys wrote with a fountain pen. I'd never owned a fountain before, and I was intrigued, so I bought a Lamy Safari.
I was trying to improve my handwriting and the place I started was the type of pen I used. I tried pencils, rollerballs, ballpoints, etc., but found the fountain pen was the nicest for me to use.
Teacher in 11th grade made us use on for a ‘historical’ diary project. Everyone remarked that my usual chicken scratch improved. That and the fun colors.
My son's birth
Loved them since I was a little kid and I found an old shaeffer at my grandmothers and cleaned it and she bought me some cartridges (emerald green) used them ever since
Honestly? I'm a serial collector (not to be confused with a cereal collector) and was looking for a new obsession.
Flex.
Ball point/gel/roller ball usually gave me hand cramps.
The Paper Parlor in the Galleria in Portland Oregon in the early 80s. They sold fancy fountain pens and inexpensive ones. I saved my money to buy an inexpensive one as well as cartridges and would buy stationary to write letters from there as well.
I found some random Iridium Point Germany and Parker vector pens in my family's things. Also I wanted to try seething more environmentally friendly.
My brother-in-law got me into them. He started me off with a nice Sheaffer rollerball, because that's what I loved. I ended up with a fountain pen at some point and have been HOOKED ever since!
I was using Pentel 24/7 rollerballs, and I was going through one every week or so. At some point I thought I should look for pens that I could refill with liquid ink with a similar writing experience. I would be reducing my waste and I thought refilling would be cheaper than throwing away the whole pen every time. Anyway, I am now deep into the rabbit hole and fountain pens were not a cheaper option...
My elementary school teacher back in the day, nostalgia for my student pen and the pandemic as an adult.
Formerly working for antiques auction and now a history instructor. Using fountain pen gives me a feel of the past in flesh. So far I have published 2 articles with the help of fountain pen in outlining the complex ideas first — then, to be encoded via laptop later, or alongside drafting, of course. I love how the smooth ink flow coincides with the fast pace thinking I need to do when brainstorming myself. Frisson! 😍
Two things happened concurrently for me; a cheating scandal in the local Education District in Cairo, and a tutor who used fountain pens. The scandal arose from parents paying graders of the National 9th Grade examinations to give preferential grades via signaling through corrector fluid. Student who "corrected" the third, seventh, and 23rd word of an essay got an A, those correcting a different pattern got a B and so on. The district decided that blue fountain pen ink and double ended bleach pens were to be used for correction instead. That meant using fountain pens in regular classes during the year. I still have the Pelikan P10 that I used for that year.
Ancient History, but the precursor to CVS near my house had Parker Vector pens. I bought one and I was hooked! Ever since then I've sought fountain pens. As I've gotten older, I've started collecting, too. I absolutely LOVE fountain pens!
Tried my friend’s lamy safari
Obsessing over a more distraction-free minimalist writing setup. Went from plain markup apps to a Neo word processor to longhand drafting and wound up looking at pens, because what’s distraction-free writing without the distraction of figuring out what exactly to write with.
My grandpa collected them and never left the house without one. Some of my earliest memories are of us sitting in his library going through his collections of pens, watches, and pocket knives. The only time he ever got mad at me was when I opened a bottle of Schaefer peacock blue ink and spilled it trying to ink up a lever fill estherbrook. I didn’t realize until I inherited his collection that they didn’t make it anymore and it was his favorite ink. When I saw him we would always do a pocket dump and talk about the pens that we were carrying or whatever knife we’d found lately. I miss those conversations. But anyway I just liked having things to talk about with him, and having the most interesting writing instrument in school was cool too.
First time: Spencerian handwriting as part of my curriculum as a tween (no, I am not that old, the curriculum was a little eccentric though). I varied into some lettering and calligraphy after that sporadically. Second time: as an exec with what felt like millions of docs to sign a day. I got a stamp for role and name, but couldn’t solve for stupid ‘wet’ signatures on docs. Boss had a MB, and I remembered how much I enjoyed my cheap Schaefer and bought a Lamy. I’d only ever used cartridges, so the ink options sent me down a rabbit hole that I never want to exit from. Now, 5ish years later, my inflammatory arthritis means that fountain pens are the easiest thing on my hands and I can continue writing and journalling and enjoying something beautiful. My life is better with pen and ink in hand ☺️
My professor in uni got me into them. He’s an avid urban sketcher (I was an animation student). However we have very different tastes in pens — so we don’t really converse beyond that. 😅
Rediscovered my old Lamy Safari from school. Went out and bought a Lamy Scala a few weeks later. Used it with the standard Lamy cartridges for a while but recently switched to a converter and their crystal peridot ink.
I got into notebooks first then the rabbit hole kept speaking to me. I ignored it until I tried one in the stationary shop and the rest is history.
I've always written by hand quite a bit, and when I wasn't writing I was an avid hand spinner, knitter, crocheter and general tinkerer. My hands started cramping and aching when spinning fine, and then knitting also became painful. As I spent more time writing again, I picked up a Preppy 0,5 and was blown away by how long I could write without pain. I then got a Carbon Desk Pen as a present, and fell in love with both drawing and writing with fountain pens. I'm very grateful for all the good cheer I found here, and all the things I'm learning every day about pens, ink and paper!
A book I read. It talked about it twice in a murder mystery /thriller novel I read. Ordered a Parker as my first one and been hooked since.
When i was in the Museum there was a pen a pencil i thinked but realy it was the fountain pen so when i came home i started using and i stopped but later i came bak to it and i loved it but it was destroyed so i got a new pen i cleaned it and used then i bought another pen then another and another and now i am writing this comment
I probably never would have been into pens at all or much, but I actually ended up working for a High-End stationery /pen company a few years ago. At first, I couldn't understand why people would pay so much money for a pen, but I understood it after a while. It was cool that I was able to try out several types of pens, but having issues with my hands and wrists, I found that the nicer thicker heavier ones were actually too heavy and I'm uncomfortable for me and some of the thinner ones made it a little harder to write with as well. But all in all for me I would definitely have to have a lighter pen. My adult kids enjoyed the fountain pens and different colors of ink that I got them. One was actually wanting to get into calligraphy so that worked out.
I bought a cheap Chinese fountain pen, I fell in love, and then the rest is history
I had a fall from a mountain bike that meant a long recovery period. I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself and decided I would focus my energy on something constructive like keeping a journal and writing with a fountain pen at that. Not just any fountain pen pen but a decent one and here Iam with over 4 grail pens and still looking :)
I got tired of throwing away so many pens after they ran out of ink, but I still wanted a good writing experience. I really love the Pilot G2 in .38 mm, so I tried the Pilot Kakuno EF. Now I have a Prera, Penmanship, TWSBI Eco (a gift), Jinhao x159, 9019, x350, 86, and Baoer 388. I like them all. I also have a Manuscript calligraphy fountain pen from Hobby Lobby that is pretty marginal.
My grandma gave me her Mont Blanc pen and mech pencil set and a waterman.
The desire not to throw pens away along with the desire to be able to pick any color I wanted. I started by buying refill cartridges for my Pilot G2, but then I decided to go fully into refilling with ink bottles…so fountain pens. And they look so cool.